It's an open question whether prescribing emotions to plant-life is appropriate, but it is a common model used to explain plant behavior. You could argue botanists are anthropomorphizing their subjects...or you could fixate on the overlap of plant and animal behaviors in response to similar conditions.

But for some science showing botanists using emotional language for plants in action, here ya go: https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/scaring-soybeans-def...