{"id":16408,"date":"2025-06-18T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=16408"},"modified":"2025-06-18T10:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:14:59","slug":"the-light-eaters-by-zoe-schlanger","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/the-light-eaters-by-zoe-schlanger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Light Eaters by Zo\u00eb Schlanger"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Plants do astonishing things. This book presents multiple descriptions of the ways they interact with each other and with the environment, including with us. For most readers this information alone will make the book worth reading and contemplating.<\/p>\n

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One plant,\u00a0<\/span>Arabidopsis<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0responds to gentle strokes with a soft paintbrush with dramatic hormonal and genetic changes that cause it to bulk up or slow its growth. In nature, the plant may be reacting to frequent wind gusts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Corn plants attacked by caterpillars release a gas that attracts the specific wasps that eat those specific caterpillars.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Rye plants, previously scraggly weeds in wheat fields, changed shape to mimic wheat to avoid being pulled out.\u00a0Eventually they became the rye crop grown for its own value.<\/span><\/p>\n

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All these changes have taken place more quickly than can happen in evolution\u2014sometimes in days or even in minutes.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Underlying all this activity is the question of how we should think about plants in the light of this information. What language should we use, and what conclusions should we draw from that choice of language? Are plants intelligent beings? The book\u2019s title offers an example. When plants take in sunlight and convert it to chlorophyll, is that \u201ceating\u201d? When plants interact in ways that in animals can happen only with the use of a brain, which plants don\u2019t have, is that \u201cthinking?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Or should we develop language to describe all this that doesn\u2019t compare plants to animals?\u00a0The choice of language has a major effect on our thinking.\u00a0If\u00a0<\/span>plants are\u00a0<\/span>essentially like us, they deserve higher ranking on our lists of priorities for protection or destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The title reveals Schlanger\u2019s answer: plants eat.\u00a0She also makes clear, however, that scientists are seriously divided on the question.\u00a0While giving lots of fascinating information, this book asks you to rethink the whole concept of the plant world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy and published in the Leaflet<\/em>, Volume 12, Issue 7, July 2025.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plants do astonishing things. This book presents multiple descriptions of the ways they interact with each other and with the environment, including with us. For most readers this information alone will make the book worth reading and contemplating. One plant,\u00a0Arabidopsis,\u00a0responds to gentle strokes with a soft paintbrush with dramatic hormonal and genetic changes that cause it to bulk up or slow its growth. In nature, the plant may be reacting to frequent wind gusts.   Corn plants attacked by caterpillars…<\/p>\n

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