The Action Plant
Author: Paul Simons
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 1992-01
Total Pages: 323
ISBN-13: 9780631138990
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Action Plant is a radical new way of looking at plants as sensitive moving creatures, more like primitive animals than vegetables, and is based on a wealth of research, brought together in one place for the first time. Paul Simons examines the animal-like behaviour of plant movements and shows that movements are not peculiar to a famous few 'weird' species. Many leaves can search for light like miniature satellite dishes tracking the sun, insects can be bludgeoned into cross-pollination, and one fungus seems to have the habits of a triffid by spearing passing creatures with a harpoon. But the book is not simply a catalogue of these extraordinary natural phenomena. Simons reveals that all plants have a 'muscle' and nerve-like system which they and the animal kingdom evolved from ancient one-celled creatures. The revelation that these seemingly simple creatures have sensors, signals and motors all rolled into one cell shows that 'nervousness' is probably universal to almost all living things.