The debate over whether plants have feelings is about to reopen, thanks to scientific research in Italy and Germany. Findings suggest that plants under threat can use a devilish measure of cunning. They not only communicate the danger to plants nearby, they also call in help from other creatures.

Research proved that plants sense--and react to--the presence of hungry, leaf-eating worms. Their response, as studied, was to emit an odour. This alerted other plants to the presence of a predator¹. But it also served to call in what modern military planners would term air support. Wasps², the natural enemies of worms, were drawn³ by the odour to the plant where they either devoured⁴ the worm or injected it with eggs that later killed it.

The study raised the interesting question: at the start of the process described, did the plants actually experience something that could be termed fear? A debate over this began in 1966 when a lie detector⁵ expert, Cleve Backster, connected a plant to a polygraph (lie detector). He said the machine registered changes as soon as he began to think about burning the plant’s leaves.

意大利和德国的科学研究又引发了对植物是否有感情的讨论。研究结果表明，受到威胁的植物会采取极巧妙的办法，不但能把危险传达给附近的植物，而且还能请求别的生物给予帮助。

研究表明植物能感觉到饥饿的食叶虫的出现，也能够对此做出反应。研究发现，它们的反应是发出一种气味。这种气味使别的植物警觉起来，意识到敌人来了。可是，这也起到了请求给予现代军事学家所说的“空中支援”的作用。毛虫的天敌黄蜂被这种气味吸引到植物上来，它们或者把毛虫吃下或者把卵产入毛虫体内，事后将其致死。

研究也提出了有趣的问题：在所描述的过程开始时，植物真的体验到了可以称作“害怕”的感觉吗？这个说法的争论始于1966年，当时一个名叫克利夫-巴克斯特的测谎学家把一种植物同一台多种波动描记器（测谎器）连接，他说他一考虑把植物的叶子烧了，测谎器就记录到了变化。