Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses
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...more
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...more
Hardcover, 177 pages
Published
May 22nd 2012
by Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published May 4th 2012)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
684)
Silly rabbit. Plants don’t have a brain or central nervous system – how can they “know” anything? Turns out though, that their cells communicate with electrical currents and contain some of the same neuroreceptors as human cells. Huh? Also, they see. They have photoreceptors on the tips of their shoots that cause the stalks to bend toward light (if you cut off the tip, the rest of the stalk doesn’t bend). And, they smell. Infested trees let off a chemical that bugs don’t like, and trees nearby p...more
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses
Daniel Chamovitz
Darwin's Garden!
Plants are profoundly different from animals but both share many of the same problems: they both have to survive in a somewhat hostile world, they both have to take in nourishment, expel waste (oxygen) and try to keep from being eaten. This fascinating little book explores the inner life of plants and how they address the Darwinian forces that surround them. The sun provides life giving light for the plant and the pl...more
Daniel Chamovitz
Darwin's Garden!
Plants are profoundly different from animals but both share many of the same problems: they both have to survive in a somewhat hostile world, they both have to take in nourishment, expel waste (oxygen) and try to keep from being eaten. This fascinating little book explores the inner life of plants and how they address the Darwinian forces that surround them. The sun provides life giving light for the plant and the pl...more
Really fascinating to ponder what a plant does know - essential reading for anyone who gardens or has house plants or who admires the trees in the park! Sciency but in a very understandable way. Very much recommended.
*So the next time you find yourself on a stroll thru a park, take a second to ask yourself: What does the dandelion in the lawn see? What does the grass smell? Touch the leaves of an oak, knowing that the tree will remember it was touched. But it won't remember you. You, on the othe...more
*So the next time you find yourself on a stroll thru a park, take a second to ask yourself: What does the dandelion in the lawn see? What does the grass smell? Touch the leaves of an oak, knowing that the tree will remember it was touched. But it won't remember you. You, on the othe...more
A fascinating little book on how plants are able to sense the environment and react in an intelligible, goal-directed manner. Chamovitz is at pains to distinguish legitimate scientific investigations into plant awareness from typical New Age mumbo-jumbo like The Secret Life of Plants,, which unfortunately soured the legitimacy of seriously studying plant sensation. Chamovitz's book provides a lucid introduction to classic and modern experimentation on plant's sensory abilities going back to Darw...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
If you read this book, even the first few chapters, you will never look at any plant the same again. Before you get too far into the book, you may wonder if the author is not setting you up to join him in a plants' rights campaign. But if you read to the end you will be disabused of such a conclusion. In fact, you will find that such anthropomorphizing is not the purpose of the book. It is simply a book to increase the awareness (a word chosen in harmony with the content of the book) of what pla...more
What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz is the first book I’ve ever encountered that seeks to give a plants’ view of the world, and to do so scientifically(1), with due care taken to cite the appropriate studies. It’s a fascinating examination of the way plants sense the world, one which also takes a look at how humans know what is around us.
The book starts with sight and works its way through to the question of awareness, all the while reexamining the definition for each concept, carefully unpac...more
The book starts with sight and works its way through to the question of awareness, all the while reexamining the definition for each concept, carefully unpac...more
Thankfully, this book was not "New-Agey" at all. It is research-driven. I love that the facts are as interesting as fiction. It details similarities (more than I realized existed) between plants and humans without falling into the trap of anthropomorphizing plants. The author uses the human senses as an analog to explain plant responses to environmental stimuli. I feel that these connections are useful in that they help us to understand plants better and to understand ourselves better. The curre...more
Elegantly expressed overview of current plant research, comparing plant senses and human senses. Debunks some of the ideas expressed in The Secret Life of Plants, at least as they were popularized in the media, and yet in the end saying plants are aware. Disappointingly short, only 141 pages plus 30 pages of notes, index, and acknowledgements. Highly recommended for people who love to read science. Good discussion of epinegenetics, also. Saw it reviewed in Science News, asked the library to orde...more
Loved this book! It was informative, up to date, and well written. There were enough examples to defend the theories, but not too many. However, when the book was over I wanted more! There is a myriad of plants and their diversity is so individual! The way the book was written made it an enjoyable read because I was able to compare homo sapiens to plants! It changed my perspective and gave me many more reasons to appreciate plants (although I already appreciated them, but for different reasons)....more
This will interest you if (like me) you know little about plants in general, and it will entertain you if you don't mind a very casual tone.
The book seems to be well researched and is organized thematically by sense (including memory and proprioception—the ability to distinguish up from down and to be spatially aware of the body in relation to itself—which I hadn't even considered before reading this book). What I found most appealing was how Chamovitz presents research as a historical narrative...more
The book seems to be well researched and is organized thematically by sense (including memory and proprioception—the ability to distinguish up from down and to be spatially aware of the body in relation to itself—which I hadn't even considered before reading this book). What I found most appealing was how Chamovitz presents research as a historical narrative...more
Sep 19, 2012
Ralph
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Ralph by:
New book shelf at the library
This was an interesting little book. My main take-away from it was that I didn't really appreciate what a tireless scientist Charles Darwin was. He did a pretty simple but elegant experiment on which part of a plant senses light so that the plant can grow toward it.
I like how the author compared plant features to human ones. The book was written at just the right level, a nice balance between a good thorough explanation and keeping the reader's eyes from glazing over.
I like how the author compared plant features to human ones. The book was written at just the right level, a nice balance between a good thorough explanation and keeping the reader's eyes from glazing over.
A lovely, short little book written with an open mind, yet supported with a wealth of scientific research. I found that it could have been organized a little better with regards to the scientific background required to understand each concept (it's been a few years since high school, okay?), but all that the reader needs to know in order to understand the contents of the book is elucidated by the end. A very complete introduction to sensory response in the plant kingdom.
A very basic lesson on the way that a plant interprets, responds to, and "remembers" stimuli. Much of it was overview from my intro to bio and evolution courses, but it did reveal research that I had never heard of and delves a little deeper than my textbooks at times. This book got me thinking for sure about what it means to be aware. I enjoy the thought that every plant I touch will not remember me, but will remember my touch.
This is a good one to read after digging in and planting a garden. I've for awhile been interested in plant "consciousness" and this book does well with feeding that in science based sensory observations, the mechanisms for how plants experience stimuli. It makes one appreciate their own set of sensory organs, and curious about the alternative format of other living beings, and their perception of sensory input.
An engaging read that serves as a great introduction to plant chemical ecology. My only complaint is that I found it to be a little sparse on actual scientific explanation, but I do have a degree in horticulture science. Still, I think this book should be required reading - so few seem to realize that plants are complex organisms that must engage in the types of warfare typically found only in science fiction.
Много интересна книга, която ме накара да преосмисля доста "факти", които си мислех, че знам. Как и защо реагират растенията на светлина, аромати, гравитация, вибрации, травми... памет и наследственост, поведение на растенията... Препоръчвам я на всеки, който има по-дълбок от маргинален интерес към растителния свят, без значение дали говорим за домашната драцена или декари овощна градина.
Very clear and insightful read about the various sensory abilities of plants. He shows some striking similarities between plants and humans. While he locates this in the framework of evolution I think it is far more profound to see his points reflecting how the Creator has made similarities between plants and people at least for the reason of teaching us some wonderful lessons about his creatorial skill, wisdom and care.
It is a fascinating book!
It is a fascinating book!
A thoroughly interesting and entertaining look at the life of plants.
As a ken gardener I've always had a sixth sense for what a plant likes/wants/needs
and now I know the science behind it.
If you are into gardening and want to really understand plants this small book, only
140 pages is worth a read.
As a ken gardener I've always had a sixth sense for what a plant likes/wants/needs
and now I know the science behind it.
If you are into gardening and want to really understand plants this small book, only
140 pages is worth a read.
Fantisic book about the world of plants. Completely describes difficult to understand historical and modern terminology, experiments and refferences in an extremely easy to grasp fashion. There are more to plants then you realize and this text will wake you up to their world and perceptions.
I agree the book was too short, and it included a lot more basic plant biology than I would have liked. But I thought the info presented was well researched, and even the most complex concepts were explained in terms that didn't tax the brain. Pull a chair up next to the flower bed or stretch out under an oak with it. Pretty interesting stuff.
Loved it.
My education and entire career has involved plants, and this little book has given me much food for thought. Drawing on genetic research and other science, Chamovitz encourages the reader to consider how plants are aware of their surroundings. Entertaining & educational, filled with great examples.
My education and entire career has involved plants, and this little book has given me much food for thought. Drawing on genetic research and other science, Chamovitz encourages the reader to consider how plants are aware of their surroundings. Entertaining & educational, filled with great examples.
Read this is leas than 24 hrs, ironically. Not an ironic book, unfortunately more scientific than romantic or perhaps that's fortunate, I don't know. Added to my vocabulary. Not bad. Plants are listening, but they don't care.
Fun to read but extremely light on detail and the hardcover I bought was overpriced. Borrow it and read it over a weekend.
A short and informative survey with a solid science given in lay terms. I read this as research for a story I'm currently writing/revising but it's worth reading in it's own right.
I literally couldn't put it down! Absolutely riveting! Honestly, one of the best books I've read in awhile.
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of "What a Plant Knows: The Hidden Senses of Your Garden - and Beyond" through a giveaway on Goodreads.
I have to say how lovely this book was to read. I was fascinated by the things your plants do everyday, their senses, memory, orientation and feelings. I didnt realise how much plants knew and how similar some attributes are to humans. It has made me want to take that little bit more care of the flowers we grow on our window boxes and of course, I wlll neve...more
I have to say how lovely this book was to read. I was fascinated by the things your plants do everyday, their senses, memory, orientation and feelings. I didnt realise how much plants knew and how similar some attributes are to humans. It has made me want to take that little bit more care of the flowers we grow on our window boxes and of course, I wlll neve...more
A brief and non-technical look at what plants can do. They can see, smell, and remember if you touch them, for example. If this is news to you, this might be the book for you. If you already knew that, this book might be a bit too basic. In any case, the scientific rigor behind this book deserves praise and respect.
A great little book, as easy to digest as leafy spring greens and just as good for you.
Good, readable, unusual, but a little light on content. This is no fault of the author - the field itself is a little thin. Interesting stuff, however.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: What a Plant Knows: ISBN 9780374288730 | 2 | 25 | Feb 15, 2013 10:57am |
