Rating: 4 of 5
Type: Nature
Way Back Machine
Whoa, If I’m glad I did not read this book 25 years ago. I would have reverted back to my 21 years old “WE ARE DESTROYING THE PLANET” self!
Jumping into the way-back machine in my early years before life had beat me down I was sure we were well on the road to making the planet uninhabitable. In 1946, my birth year, the planet contained 2.3 billion humans. By 1964, the year I graduated from college, the world contained 3.28 billion souls. Using simple math I calculated in the year 2000 the Planet would contain over 7 billion humans. Obviously, to me any others way to many humans for the Plant to sustain. Today, the World’s Population is 8.062 Billion.
Two years prior in 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring which woke up any of us to the harm we were inflicting on our environment.
After high school I became a True Believer. I protested and bored others on how to change their habits to stop the insanity. Then life got in the way! I fell in love, married, graduated from college, started a job, and had children. Other worries took over.
Looking back, the Jackson Browne tune The Pretender fits me to a “T”. The tune’s key phrase We started out so young and strong only to surrender sums everything up.
What does all that have to do with the booK? Read on and find out.
Summary
In The Light Eaters Zoe Schlanger takes us on an exploration of emerging revolutions in Plant Science forcing us to ask questions like:
- What is a plant
- Are plants intelligent
- Are plants sentient
- Are plants Conscious
In the first couple chapters the author takes us on a journey around the world describing the amazing diversity of plant life and along the way building the portrait of “what is a plant”.
Then she narrates the evolution from when the ancient Greeks considered plants to be alive and deserved respect to now our attitude is plants exist only to serve mankind. By the way, this is the chapter that woke the way back machine driving me to a frenzy about how we treat the planet.
The remaining chapters explore plant characteristics by reviewing scientists performing research and providing examples of the plant characteristics they are studying. Chapter by chapter she attempts to build the case for plant intelligence.
Multiple research studies show plants have many capabilities we “Higher Life Forms” possess:
- Touch
- Hearing
- Memory
- Communicate with both plants & animals
- Sight
- Recognize their kin
- Cooperate with Fungi to form communities
In the final reckoning it’s high time we changed our attitudes towards plants. AS the author states
Plants eat light. Photosynthesis, so basic to plants, is the prerequisite for most every other life form on earth.
Examples
I included a few examples. If you are interested grab a copy of the book and prepare for a fascinating journey.
Plants have the sense of touch Touch. She provides many examples such as the Mimosa pudica whose leaves suddenly go limp when it is touched. Botanists believe it is to discourage caterpillars from eating the leaves. Moving along, you can change the plant’s growth pattern by touching in repetitively. In the greenhouse you can change the plant’s growth pattern by touching it repeatedly causing it to grow stouter sacrificing height. How does this work? Scientist believe plants have a nervous system but they have been unable to locate it.
Plants communicate with animals. In a study led by Dr. Consuelo De Moraes, researchers found that when a caterpillar begins chewing on a corn plant, the plant releases a chemical gas. This gas attracts a species of wasp that preys on the caterpillar, helping to protect the corn from further damage.
Can plants See? Everyone agrees plants sense light but can plants truly see?. Going beyond sensing light an example is the “Boquila trifoliolata” from South America. It mimics the shape, size, and even color of the leaves of plants it grows near. This mimicry is precise and can copy multiple host plants at once, even artificial ones. The jury is out on why but sight is gaining more traction with the researchers. Other possibilities include microbe transfer or chemical transfer
Multiple researches have proven plants recognize plants of their own kind. For example, Sunflower roots are tightly packed when Sunflowers are grown closely together but when they sense plants of another species they aggressively spread their roots. Susan Dudley believes plants recognize other plants by the color of light and change their behavior accordingly.
AI version
Because I’m curious about AI I asked the AI on my web browser (DIA) for a summary of the book. The AI version is more concise than mine and doesn’t ramble as much. Here’s what the AI returned:
In “The Light Eaters,” Zoë Schlanger explores the hidden world of plant intelligence and what it means for how we understand life on Earth. Schlanger takes readers on a journey through forests and scientific labs, sharing stories about how plants can sense their surroundings, communicate with each other, and even defend themselves from threats. She describes fascinating examples, like tomato plants releasing chemicals to make caterpillars turn on each other, or pitcher plants tricking wasps with fake pheromones.
The book dives into the debate about whether we should call these abilities “intelligence” or “consciousness,” since plants don’t have brains like humans or animals. Schlanger explains that while plants act in complex ways, scientists disagree on whether these actions count as true intelligence or are just the result of natural programming. She also talks about how our language and thinking are so human-centered that we often end up describing plants in ways that aren’t quite accurate.
Overall, “The Light Eaters” mixes science, philosophy, and personal stories to show that plants are not just background scenery but active participants in the ecosystem. The book encourages us to look at plants in a new light and to appreciate the amazing things they can do, even if those things are very different from human intelligence.
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