okay, ripleofdeath, i think i found what u were talking about
the following is an excerpt from Michael Crichton's The Lost World
" "We realize that plants, in their ceaseless struggle to survive, have evolved everything from complex symbiosis with other animals, to signaling mechanisms to warn other plants, to outright chemical warfare."
Kelly frowned. "Signaling? Like what?"
"Oh there are many examples," Levine said. "In Africa, acacia trees evolved very long, sharp thorns-- 3 inches or so-- but that only provoked animals like giraffes and antelope to evolve long tounges to get past the thorns. Thorns alone didn't work. So, in the evolutionary arms race, the acacia trees next evolved toxicity. They started to produce large quantites of tannin in their leaves, which sets off a lethal metabolic reaction in the animals that eat them. Literally kills them. At the same tame, the acacias also evolved a chemical warning system among themselves. If an antelope begins to eat one tree in a grove, that tree releases the chemical ethylene into the air, which causes other trees in the grove to step up the production of leaf tannin. Within 5 or 10 minutes, the other trees are producing more tannin, making themselves poisonous."
"And what happens to the antelope? It dies?"
"Well, not anymore," Levine said, "because the evolutionary arms race continued. Eventually, antelopes learned that they could only browze for a short time. Once the trees started to produce more tannin, they had to stop eating it. And the browsers developed new strategies. For example, when a giraffe eats an acacia tree, it then avoids all the trees downwind. Instead, it moves to another tree some distance away. So the animals have adapted to this defense too." "
although that doesnt really answer the question about whether plants feel pain, it is interesting to note. by the way, anyone who hasnt yet read Jurassic Park by Crichton, do it. now. Lost World was allright, but Crichton sold out bringin malcom back. damn sellout.