In Praise of Plants

Summary

What do we know about plants, really? Through a rich array of examples, many illustrated in the author's elegant and distinctive style, this book offers a new look at botany. This scholarly yet fun book examines the qualities that make plants unique, so different from animals. Experienced in both the academic and in-the-field sides of science, the opinionated Hallé delightfully makes the case that plants differ so profoundly from animals that questions are raised about the meaning of individuality and the nature of life and death.

Foreword	p. 11
Preface	p. 17
Acknowledgments	p. 20
Plants, Animals, and Humans	p. 23
Who Cares About Palms?	p. 24
Are Plants Alive?	p. 26
Contemplating Our Navel	p. 27
A Bias Bordering on Injustice	p. 29
The Garden and the Peasant	p. 30
The Sorcery of Omnipresence	p. 32
And the Disadvantage of Otherness	p. 34
A Bit of Psychology	p. 36
Comparing Plants and Animals	p. 38
A Visit to the Landscape of Form	p. 41
Whence Form?	p. 42
Capturing Energy	p. 43
Plants, Vast Fixed Surfaces	p. 43
Animals, Small Mobile Volumes	p. 46
With Vast Internal Surfaces	p. 47
Consequences of Growth	p. 50
The Structure of Space	p. 53
The Scale of Natural Phenomena	p. 54
Relationship Between Form and Space	p. 56
Changing the Scale	p. 64
One Polarity and Radial Symmetry: Plants	p. 69
Two Polarities and Bilateral Symmetry: Animals	p. 73
And Monsters?	p. 74
What Is an Embryo?	p. 77
Homeotic Genes	p. 80
Animal Eggs, Plant Eggs	p. 84
Animals Are Strange	p. 88
Hormones	p. 89
The Action of Light Remains a Mystery	p. 93
The Miniature Model Versus the Sample	p. 94
Closed and Open Development	p. 95
Stories of Trees	p. 99
Fixed but Not Immobile	p. 101
The Time Scale for Plants	p. 103
Movement and Growth	p. 104
What Do the Poets Think?	p. 107
Individuals or Colonies?	p. 108
The Discovery of Reiteration	p. 110
What Is an Individual?	p. 113
Is a Tree an Individual?	p. 116
Potentially Immortal Beings	p. 117
Two Ways of Dying	p. 122
The Cell	p. 125
Characteristics of the Eukaryotic Cell	p. 126
Differences in Structure	p. 129
One Cell Within Another	p. 133
Differences in Function	p. 134
Where the Horticulturist Precedes the Biologist	p. 140
Foreshadowing at the Cellular Level	p. 142
Plant Biochemistry in a Nutshell	p. 145
The Silhouette, Cellulose or Protein	p. 146
A Regrettable Inelegance	p. 148
A Look at the Krebs Cycle	p. 151
Biochemistry for Normal Life	p. 152
Biochemistry for Relief	p. 156
An Altruistic Tree	p. 158
A Butterfly That Remembers Shapes	p. 159
Biochemistry to Take Advantage of Animal Mobility	p. 161
Are Animals Manipulated by Plants?	p. 163
A Pinnacle of Beauty	p. 166
Nauseating Flowers	p. 168
Copulating Flowers and Animals	p. 169
Evolution	p. 173
Do Plants and Animals Evolve the Same Way?	p. 173
One Plant, Two Generations	p. 176
Parasitic Reduction in the Haploid Generation	p. 179
One Animal, One Generation	p. 181
Soma and Germ	p. 182
Do Plants Have a Germ Line?	p. 184
The Plasticity of Organisms	p. 185
Who Wins the Prize for Plasticity?	p. 191
Genomic Plasticity	p. 192
Generators of Genetic Diversity	p. 196
Tissue Culture	p. 201
Hybrids Between Species	p. 201
Genetic Diversity Within the Plant	p. 204
The Strangler Figs of Lake Gatun	p. 205
Sorting Mechanisms	p. 211
Predatory Action	p. 215
What Does Plant Sexuality Mean?	p. 217
What Causes Genetic Diversity Within a Plant?	p. 219
The Vertebrate Immune System	p. 220
Stationary Lives and Genetic Diversity	p. 222
Resistance of Biologists to a Genetics Unique to Plants	p. 224
Darwin or Lamarck?	p. 225
Are Bacteria Lamarckian?	p. 227
How Weeds Defend Themselves Against Herbicides	p. 228
Must We Choose Between Darwin and Lamarck?	p. 230
Geographic Convergence	p. 231
Divaricating Plants of New Zealand	p. 234
The Beeches of Verzy	p. 237
Mimes and Mimicry	p. 239
Two Different Classifications	p. 243
Of Other Living Beings	p. 249
Fungi	p. 249
Trees and Corals	p. 252
Coral Architecture	p. 254
Returning to the Idea of the Individual	p. 258
Concerning Plasticity	p. 261
Reticulate Evolution	p. 265
The Forest and the Reef	p. 267
How to Live Fixed in Place	p. 268
Plants and Insect Societies	p. 270
Evolution of Behavior or of Form?	p. 273
Looking for Analogues	p. 274
Is a Plant a Crystal?	p. 276
Immanence and Transcendence	p. 280
Ecology	p. 283
Give Plants Their Due	p. 284
Nutrition and Biological Types	p. 285
Ambiguity in the Relationship Between Eater and the Eaten	p. 288
Climates and Landscapes	p. 291
Who Needs the Other Most?	p. 293
Noah's Two Arks	p. 296
Epilogue	p. 297
What Do We Recognize as Success?	p. 298
In Praise of Plants	p. 299
Dispersion or Concentration	p. 300
Are Plants Persons?	p. 302
The Two Faces of Botany	p. 303
References	p. 305
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts

Replacing elephant ivory with vegetable ivory has been presented as an environmental victory. However, who is concerned about the bleak future for the palms that provide the vegetable ivory, the strange Phytelephas of the understory in the western Amazonian rain forest, whose existence is threatened by the destruction of the last primary forests at the foot of the Andes? Would we prefer to see palms vanish rather than elephants? At the supermarket I found a shampoo , 'Pure, natural, with essential oils of sage and juniper berry, chamomile, orange and wood rose.' The label stated nicely, 'This product was not tested on animals.' Why do we have a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals but not one for prevention of cruelty to plants? Why do we have leagues against vivisection but do not protect plane trees against pollarding by arborists?Let us accept the evidence. Humans have a passion for animals even if they come to prefer them on the plate rather than admiring them for their freedom. Interest in animals persists as a deep emotion, completely accessible and common to all, profoundly natural. We cannot say the same about plants. . . . Plants to us are principally food, drink, medicine, raw material for industry, pasturage for domestic animals, green space for cities, landscapes for relaxation. They do not arouse any real passion in most of us.