"This elegantly written account of plant biology will change the way you see your garden. Chamovitz explores a different human sense in each chapter revealing similarities in the way plants experience the world. They can, for instance, distinguish between light of different colours. They are aware of aromas and also gravity: special plant cells function like our inner ear, allowing roots and growing tips to sense which way is up or down. Plants know when they are being touched. Touch a beech tree's branches and "the tree will remember it was touched. But it won't remember you". Trees even communicate with one another, releasing airborne chemical signals to warn their neighbours when they are attacked by leaf-eating insects. From sequoias to algae, plants have rich and varied sensory inputs. Chamovitz lets us see plants in a new light, one which reveals their true wonder. Genetically they are more complex than many animals and indeed we share some of our genes with plants: 'We should see a very long-lost cousin when we gaze at our rosebush in full bloom.'"
--PD Smith in The Guardian
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