4:49am May 22, 2012

➸ What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide To The Senses

A book that just came out and became available for Kindle today. Covers a lot of the stuff I talked about before in my post about plant senses, and more. And like that link it appears legit and not fluffy (in the introduction it even goes into why it is totally unlike The Secret Life of Plants). So happy that I learned I already made one of my payments, so money isn’t too tight to get this for Kindle. Really excited because this seems to out things I wanted to know about botany in layman’s terms. It’s great it came out right as I discovered what scientists know about this stuff. Still wish I had an education in botany though.

Everything below is from the website:

A captivating journey into the lives of plants—from the colors they see to the schedules they keep

How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it feel an insect’s spindly legs? How do flowers know when it’s spring? Can they actually remember the weather? And do they care if you play them Led Zeppelin or Bach?

From Darwin’s early fascination with stems and vines to Little Shop of Horrors, we have always marveled at plant diversity and form. Now, in What a Plant Knows, the renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents an intriguing and refreshing look at how plants experience the world. Highlighting the latest research in plant science, he takes us into the lives of different types of plants, and draws parallels with the human senses to reveal that we have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we may realize. He explains how a willow knows when its neighbors have been taken over by a group of hungry beetles, and why an avocado will ripen in a paper bag with a banana (it’s the pheromones). He shows how plants know up from down, and settles the debate, once and for all, over whether or not plants appreciate that music you’ve been playing. Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Chamovitz considers whether it’s too much to ask if plants are aware.

What a Plant Knows is a rare inside look at what life is really like for the grass we walk on, the flowers we sniff, and the trees we climb. It is a true field guide to the senses for science buffs and green thumbs, and for anyone who seeks a greater understanding of our place in nature.

About the Author

Daniel Chamovitz is Director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. His research has appeared in leading international journals. He lives in Hod Hasharon, Israel.

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