What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses

About this book

How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insects tiny spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they actually remember the weather? For centuries we have collectively marveled at plant diversity and formfrom Charles Darwins early fascination with stems to Seymour Krelborns distorted doting in Little Shop of Horrors. But now in What a Plant Knows the renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents an intriguing and scrupulous look at how plants themselves experience the worldfrom the colors they see to the schedules they keep. Highlighting the latest research in genetics and more he takes us into the inner lives 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. Chamovitz shows how plants know up from down how they know when a neighbor has been infested by a group of hungry beetles and whether they appreciate the Led Zeppelin youve been playing for them or if theyre more partial to the melodic riffs of Bach. Covering touch sound smell sight and even memory Chamovitz encourages us all to consider whether plants might even be aware of their surroundings. 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 What a Plant Knows offers us a greater understanding of science and our place in nature.