{"id":6297,"date":"2023-05-30T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T21:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=6297"},"modified":"2024-02-09T11:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T19:12:32","slug":"when-plants-took-over-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/when-plants-took-over-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"When Plants took over the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What do you know about plant evolution?\u00a0 My hazy memories from introductory college biology center on the development of animals, while plants got short shrift.\u00a0 For an easy and entertaining way to fill this gap, I found \u201cWhen Plants Took over the Planet\u201d an excellent solution.\u00a0 Illustrator Amy Grimes and text author Chris Thorogood start with very small algae, then show how these evolved into a group of plants that includes the seaweeds, such as the giant kelp (Macrocystits<\/em> pyrifera<\/em>) that can grow 24 inches in a single day.<\/p>\n

These water-based plants further evolved into land dwellers, including the lycopods, the earliest vascular plants that could grow to 100 feet tall.\u00a0 By contrast, the only survivors today of this group are tiny.\u00a0 These were followed by ferns and horsetails.\u00a0 Of the latter, the author writes, \u201cSome horsetails grew to a colossal 100 feet tall.\u00a0 Can you imagine wandering among fat pole-like trunks of giant horsetails?\u201d\u00a0 Can you imagine these plants as weeds in your garden?<\/p>\n

The book concludes with the conifers and the wide array of flowering plants.\u00a0 Significant groups are colorfully illustrated, often with their typical animal associates.\u00a0 Thorogood summarizes the reader\u2019s journey: \u201cWe\u2019ve trekked through fossil forests, swum across prehistoric lakes, and climbed trees.\u00a0 Now we arrive on today\u2019s green planet \u2013 a place that still teems with plant life, as it has done for millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excerpted from Brian Thompson’s article in the Summer 2023 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you know about plant evolution?\u00a0 My hazy memories from introductory college biology center on the development of animals, while plants got short shrift.\u00a0 For an easy and entertaining way to fill this gap, I found \u201cWhen Plants Took over the Planet\u201d an excellent solution.\u00a0 Illustrator Amy Grimes and text author Chris Thorogood start with very small algae, then show how these evolved into a group of plants that includes the seaweeds, such as the giant kelp (Macrocystits pyrifera)…<\/p>\n

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