Do Plants Get Cancer?

Plants do get cancer, but it are less frequent and not lethal as in animals.

Normal body cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. Cancer is caused when cells in an organ grow out of control and starts continuously dividing. These abnormal cells eventually overpower the normal ones and cause the affected organ to fail. They also tend to spread to other organs in the body and damage them. The worst-case scenario from cancer, we all know, is death.

Plant anatomy has a certain built-in defense mechanism against cancer. Plant cells have a rigid cell wall that keeps the cancerous growth, if developed, localized. Cancer cells also require a carrier to spread; they usually piggy back on the circulatory system and lymph nodes in animals. There is no such specialized transportation mechanism in plants.

On top of that, plants don’t have vital and irreplaceable organs such as a brain, lungs, and a heart that can be infected, crippling the plant.