The Restless Plant

by Dov Koller, Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh

Plants, so predictable, stay where they are. And yet, like all living things, they also they grow, adapt, shed leaves and bark, spread roots and branches, snare pollinators, and reward cultivators. This book, the first to thoroughly explore the subject since Darwin’s 1881 treatise on movements in plants, is a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the mechanisms and the adaptive values that move plants.

Drawing on examples across the spectrum of plant families―including mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants―the author opens a window on how plants within cells, as individual cells, and via organs. Opening with an explanation of how cellular motors work and how cells manage to move organs, Dov Koller considers the movement of roots, tubers, rhizomes, and other plant parts underground, as well as the more familiar stems, leaves, and flowers.

Throughout, Koller presents information at the subcellular and cellular levels, including the roles of receptors, signaling pathways, hormones, and physiological responses in motor function. He also discusses the adaptive significance of movements. His book exposes the workings of a world little understood and often overlooked, the world of restless plants and the movements by which they accomplish the necessary functions of their lives.

Genres: Plants, Science

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2011

Reviews

[Cana McGhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

provides highly detailed information about how various plants move, which is largely based on shifts in turgor bw cells. also describes how different plants respond to gravity and the presence of sunlight, and provides lots of terms to describe different angles or directions that leaves can grow toward, seed pods can break apart in, etc.