i remember back in high school biology that when in order for something to be considered alive it had to exhibit certain features of existence, if you will. i think there were several requisites that when met determined the thing to be alive. the one i remember most was that if something is alive it will have a response to stimuli and that these responses are a basic characteristic of all living organisms. so then are plants considered to be alive? as far as i can tell, when plants bend towards the sun they are responding to stimuli, no?
While plants are respirating, dividing cells....growing they are alive. They do die however and then they are dead plants; no longer respirating, growing, ...no longer carrying out any active functions.