**TL;DR: Science shows that plants can _lose_ consciousness, therefore they must be conscious to begin with** In a study by [K Yokawa et. al.](https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/122/5/747/4722571#109802828), scientists found that plants can seem to lose consciousness. In their experiment, they exposed pea plants, garden cress, and Venus Fly Traps to various anaesthetics used in human surgery, which rendered the plants unresponsive to usual stimulus. As these chemicals wore off over a few hours, the plants appeared to ‘wake up’, and once again became active. [Dr Frantisek Baluska](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/science/plants-consciousness-anesthesia.html) compares the effects of anaesthetics on plants and humans; anaesthetics disrupt electrical activity across neurons in the human brain just as they disrupt the transmission of cellular material across plant membranes, which causes both to become unresponsive. If plants can lose consciousness, is therefore stands that they must have consciousness to begin with. Of course, this bold statement ultimately comes down to how you define consciousness. These results do not suggest that plants have feelings or can philosophise about their own consciousness, but they do imply that plants have a kind of intelligence. As [we still can’t explain what causes consciousness](https://theconversation.com/science-as-we-know-it-cant-explain-consciousness-but-a-revolution-is-coming-126143), I think that plants can be considered conscious to a degree.

This contention hinges on how you define consciousness. One of the aspects of consciousness, is intelligence. Intelligence could be reasonably defined as: "Intelligence is the ability to think, to learn from experience, to solve problems, and to adapt to new situations." Although a plant (like the venus flytrap) can "outwit" a fly and trap it and eat it, the venus fly trap cannot vary it's methodology, to catch a fly. It's ability to catch a fly, is due to a reaction to physical stimulus. Plants are not conscious because, they lack the ability to use experience, to learn new ways of solving problems.

The criteria that characterises all living things is: **M**ovement **R**espiration **S**ensitivity **G**rowth **R**eproduction **E**xcretion **N**utrition Sensitivity means sensitivity to stimuli. Sensitivity to stimuli requires and, therefore, demonstrates consciousness. It is irrelevant to the prompt how meaningful such consciousness is, only that it is demonstrated.