[balfirevic]

Plants are living organisms. Before we go into any kind of debate that presupposes that plants are "creatures", "sentient" or "feel" anything, you are going to have to provide a whole lot of explaining, backed by the same amount of citations.

[wolco]

What would a discussion he without citations. Quote from below "plants are just very slow animals"

"plants can see hear and respond" http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170109-plants-can-see-hear-...

Provided this is true don't they deserve more protection over animals because they can't defend as well as animals

[balfirevic]

Of course plants exchange signals with their environment. And of course they are alive. Of course they behave with purpose (they do things which further their cause of reproducing, as is expected of evolved organisms).

This doesn't imply at all that they are sentient or have feelings, which is what we care about (or should, in any case) when we discuss harming or protecting other living things.

Of course, there are other considerations such as ecological, but that's not what we're discussing here.