What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses

The book offers cover-to-cover reading entertainment.
Every chapter unveiled something new, a surprise awaited as I turned the pages.
The style was straightforward and refreshing.
I did not know much about plants in general, and certainly not about "what plants know."
Now that I know what plants know,
it gives me an entirely new perspective as to how to treat them
and take care of them.
Perhaps we should treat them with a little respect and some degree of dignity.
Thanks to Daniel Chamovitz for writing such a delightful book.

Daniel has a clear writing style and presents interesting information on the characteristics of plants and how they are adapted to their environmental conditions. Life is amazing, exquisite and fabulous in its variety and survival. The scientific content is presented in an easy-reading style.

Chamovitz approaches the unknown plant world with an excellent way. Through his book the onions sliced we use,the bells in the countryside and lettuces in pots garden show characteristics of communication, senses and intelligence. The knowledge that provided through the book is amazing.

I first heard about this book from Robert Krulwich's blog (...) and immediately came to the store and bought it. I have long been a proponent of the idea that plants with 475 million years of evolution behind them might be way more advanced than we humans expect. Chamovitz goes through what we humans recognize as our five senses and relates how plants have (or don't have) similar experiences. He also includes memory and proprioception (knowing where you are in space). I found the writing clear, engaging and understandable. He also includes links to on-line videos where you can see this stuff in action. I personally continue to wonder what senses plants have that we humans don't recognize. I bet they are formidable. If you are interested in plants, this is a book well worth reading! It opens up a whole new perspective.

What an eye-opening, amazing book with excellent information. I literally had no idea of the range of thing plants can sense in their environment, and even better, how they can manipulate it. A must read for anyone who likes growing things!

For anyone interested in plants this should serve as an excellent read. It is extremely informative. I liked it so much that I have bought extra copies to give away. Chamovitz does an excellent job explaining the senses of plants through well accepted scientific study as well as putting the development of botany into context.

Plants have an awareness of their surroundings and can detect and react to their environment, including what's eating them, what's around them. This book helps to explain what they detect, what they remember, and how they do it.

I really enjoyed this book. It is difficult writing about science and making the science interesting and understandable, but Chamovitz has done a great job. I feel I learned a lot about plants reading this book. A very interesting subject.....

and now I know it. Dr. Chamovitz presents a fascinating look at plants in more "human" terms...looking at a plant in terms of its "senses". Whether or not you have a scientific background you will enjoy the examples of early plant research and experiments that help to explain and describe these "senses". I believe this book should be included on any students biology reading list...but you don't have to be a student to enjoy this one!

Chamovitz writes in a very lucid style on an extremely captivating subject. This makes one eager to read more on the subject, an important criterion.
The parts on genetics are perhaps a bit shallow, but this is no reason to give less than 5 **.

A very responsible divulgation of science and a very good introduction to plant biology - not only to the relationship between plants and their environment. This book is interesting not only for biologist, but also for every person who its related to plants in any sense (gardeners, farmers, or just plant lovers).

Book is a well-written and sometimes humorous account of current knowledge about plants and their abilities. An easy read, though some of the details will take you back to basic biology classes. Anyone interested in the natural world, especially plants, will enjoy this book.

I received the book two weeks before the expected. Just in one week was here!

This book is really challenging. It helps you see the plants by a different way. Besides if you are a researcher gives you a different feeling and makes you to set up some new hypotheses.

I took Dr. Daniel Chamovitz's course on COURSERA and got this book to accompany the lessons. VERY INTERESTING information most people never knew about plants. I feel like I really learned a lot of new information here.

Nonscientists with an interest in plants, such as gardening enthusiasts, should read this book. It appears to be very scientifically based, indeed the noted popular science magazine, Scientific American, is the publisher. The theme is how plants sense and respond to their environment. The book thus explores how plants "feel" light and respond to it. Also discussed is plants' reaction to touch, as well as other stimuli. The book can be understood by the nonscientist, though there are parts that became a little too technical for me. In addition, the organization is a bit off and sometimes chapters seem to end in what I thought should have been the middle of a discussion, leaving me waiting, in vain, for more.

This book works very well in the Kindle version. There are footnotes, but tapping takes the reader back and forth. A real plus on a tablet connected to the Internet is that several of the footnotes have direct links to You Tube videos that actually show a short video picture of the described event. What book can do that? For example, there is a picture of the American dodder weed plant growing into a tomato plant to feed on it. The video of the Venus fly trap closing in on a fly and then on a frog is also very worthwhile. On the other hand, some of the links have hyphens in them, probably as they were in the book form, and this means that the links don't work and you have to go to a website and type in the link directly.

All in all a very interesting book, with some minor flaws that led me to give it four instead of five stars.

Yes! I would recommend this read.

I liked it most because it was quite informative and made me curious to read more like it.

I am aware science is ever changing, but I will try to keep up with this forever change.

Thank you,

Julia I. Chapman

While interesting, this book is basically a compendium of other works. I found it a bit tedious to get through, which is odd considering some of the technical reading I'm given to. If it were shareable then I wouldn't feel so strongly, but the publisher is not only charging what I feel is a high price for a book that's been out for a few years at least, but won't let me share the e-book with others. I feel for that reason alone the e-book is not worth the price. If you must, get a hardcopy that you can pass along.