With its stylized but clearly recognizable illustrations,
Plants on the Move introduces readers of all ages to the various ways plants travel and multiply. It is divided into sections by type of movement: plants that creep or explode of their own accord, and those that move with the aid of wind, water, or the help of mammals, birds, and ants, including those that carry, drop, or ingest their fruits and leave the seeds behind. Humans also help distribute plants, both inadvertently and intentionally.
Especially entertaining are the cutaway diagrams of the digestive tracts of a blackbird and a mouse, mapping the journey of a berry from one end to the other. The charming illustrations do an excellent job of representing traits of some plants that are prolific spreaders if not downright invasive: note the bursting seedy artillery of impatiens and violets (which also have reaching stolons), the hooked fruits of burdock, the creeping tendencies of buttercup, and the tunneling habits of lily of the valley.
The section on cultivated plants explains the role of anthropochory (plant movement generated by human intervention), and lists many plants that now exist worldwide because we saved seeds, transported, and planted them. There is a short list of other scientific terms (all ending in –chory) which are so effectively illustrated throughout the book.
