It’s time, as Joni Mitchell sang at Woodstock, ‘to get ourselves back to the garden’ and take a closer look at plants.”- The Wall Street Journal “The reader…will find enough absorbing science to concede that plants continue to inspire and amaze us.

I fear I won’t get it back.” - Chicago Tribune Although I’ve recommended the book to several people, I’ve ungraciously not let them borrow my copy. What A Plant Knows is a nice fit on my shelf of gardening books - and that’s where it will stay. It’s incredibly interesting material, presented in an entertaining and fun way - in about only 140 pages. It’s Daniel Chamovitz’s What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses. But there’s one I keep coming back to, thumbing through it, letting people know about it. “Of the dozens of books I read in 2012, several stand out. One of Chicago Tribune’s Favorite Books of 2012Ī Los Angeles Times 2012 Summer Reading Selection One of Amazon’s Ten Best Science & Math Books of 2012 Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Chamovitz encourages us all to consider whether plants might even be aware of their surroundings.Ī 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. 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 you’ve been playing for them or if they’re more partial to the melodic riffs of Bach. 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. But now, in What a Plant Knows, the renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents an intriguing and scrupulous look at how plants themselves experience the world-from the colors they see to the schedules they keep. How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect’s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they actually remember the weather?įor centuries we have collectively marveled at plant diversity and form-from Charles Darwin’s early fascination with stems to Seymour Krelborn’s distorted doting in Little Shop of Horrors.

Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes