What do you think?
Rate this book
In Praise of Plants
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.
334 pages, Hardcover
First published August 26, 2002
27 people are currently reading
329 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 28, 2008
This is quite possibly my favorite book. Halle has an incredible ability to help you see life from the point of view of a plant. Not by anthropomorphizing plants, but by drawing the right parallels between animal life and plant life to enable you to perceive the commonalities. Which, since we are both multicellular, DNA-based, oxygen-metabolizing life forms...are actually greater than the differences. I was pretty happy to have my capacity for fellow-feeling with other organisms expanded in this way. It's amazing what an idiot that makes me sound like, but...oh well.
August 5, 2019
Technical but wondrously informative
It's always a good sign to see that someone has bothered to translate a science book from another language into English. Publishers can usually get some English-language scientist to write a tome on the latest discoveries in a more commercially agreeable manner than putting together a translation. So when the translation appears you know the book is good and/or original in a distinctive way.
In Praise of Plants by botany Professor Emeritus Francis Hallé of the University of Montpellier, France is such a book. However it is by no means a popular treatise; indeed, if you want to get the look and feel of a botany article in a professional journal, this book provides an entire book's worth! The material is technical, detailed, and uncompromisingly professional.
So why has the Timber Press chosen this volume to bring to the English speaking world? Partly because of the international prestige of Hallé, who is an expert on tropical plants; partly because they were able to get a translation by David Lee who is Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida International University; and partly because of the striking nature of Hallé's presentation.
Hallé emphasizes the form of plants and how that form has developed evolutionarily from their need to secure the services of both sun and earth while remaining nearly immobile. There are dozens of line drawings in the book, most by Hallé himself, illustrating the differences between plants and animals with the text explaining why these differences occur. For example, because plants are sessile (attached to the ground) they are symmetrical on the horizontal plane, a tree looking pretty much the same from whatever spot on the ground you view it. However in a vertical sense a plant is very different since its crown is in the air looking at the sun while its roots are in the ground looking for water and minerals. In contrast, animals (I'll just quote Hallé so you'll get a feel for the technical language): "have dorsiventral polarity and anteroposterior and bilateral symmetry." (p. 70)
Fortunately the attractive and sometimes funny drawings help to penetrate the language for this amateur!
Here are some examples of the sort of things you can learn from this book:
At the microscopic level, where gravity is relatively "negligible compared to other forces" like "surface tension, viscosity, friction and Brownian motion," (p. 64) life forms tend toward the round and take on the symmetries we associate with astronomical objects like the sun and Saturn. Hallé gives examples of bacteria, amoebas, diatoms, etc. where "vertical polarity simply does not exist." (p. 64) Science fiction writers take note: creatures living in interstellar dust clouds will be more or less round.
One of the clear homologies (same form) assumed by plants and animals is in "the external (assimilating) surface of a plant and the internal (digestive) surface of an animal." (p. 51) The plant maximizes its surface area to expose as much of it as possible to the sun and the air, while the animal creates folds and such within its alimentary canal so as to provide a large surface area for effective digestion. Hallé notes that plants resemble fractals externally. (p. 52)
The waste products of animals bring forth (to our sensitivities) malodorous compounds as do their decomposing bodies. Hallé explains why this is so on pages 148-151, and why the waste products of plants and their decomposing bodies do not usually offend us; indeed the smell of new mown hay and forest humus or even a compost pile, can be very agreeable. On page 149 he favors us with a drawing of a tree which grows in part upon the waste products of its metabolism stored in its trunk. Next to the tree Hallé has a dog on top of a pile of its excrement, noting that "An animal that stored its excrement would also be capable of becoming very tall."
Hallé's love of plants and his deep respect for them, and his life-long experience in studying them comes through most wonderfully in this fine book. Although technical, it is accessible to amateur botanists and just plain old gardeners and lovers of plants with just a little effort.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
It's always a good sign to see that someone has bothered to translate a science book from another language into English. Publishers can usually get some English-language scientist to write a tome on the latest discoveries in a more commercially agreeable manner than putting together a translation. So when the translation appears you know the book is good and/or original in a distinctive way.
In Praise of Plants by botany Professor Emeritus Francis Hallé of the University of Montpellier, France is such a book. However it is by no means a popular treatise; indeed, if you want to get the look and feel of a botany article in a professional journal, this book provides an entire book's worth! The material is technical, detailed, and uncompromisingly professional.
So why has the Timber Press chosen this volume to bring to the English speaking world? Partly because of the international prestige of Hallé, who is an expert on tropical plants; partly because they were able to get a translation by David Lee who is Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida International University; and partly because of the striking nature of Hallé's presentation.
Hallé emphasizes the form of plants and how that form has developed evolutionarily from their need to secure the services of both sun and earth while remaining nearly immobile. There are dozens of line drawings in the book, most by Hallé himself, illustrating the differences between plants and animals with the text explaining why these differences occur. For example, because plants are sessile (attached to the ground) they are symmetrical on the horizontal plane, a tree looking pretty much the same from whatever spot on the ground you view it. However in a vertical sense a plant is very different since its crown is in the air looking at the sun while its roots are in the ground looking for water and minerals. In contrast, animals (I'll just quote Hallé so you'll get a feel for the technical language): "have dorsiventral polarity and anteroposterior and bilateral symmetry." (p. 70)
Fortunately the attractive and sometimes funny drawings help to penetrate the language for this amateur!
Here are some examples of the sort of things you can learn from this book:
At the microscopic level, where gravity is relatively "negligible compared to other forces" like "surface tension, viscosity, friction and Brownian motion," (p. 64) life forms tend toward the round and take on the symmetries we associate with astronomical objects like the sun and Saturn. Hallé gives examples of bacteria, amoebas, diatoms, etc. where "vertical polarity simply does not exist." (p. 64) Science fiction writers take note: creatures living in interstellar dust clouds will be more or less round.
One of the clear homologies (same form) assumed by plants and animals is in "the external (assimilating) surface of a plant and the internal (digestive) surface of an animal." (p. 51) The plant maximizes its surface area to expose as much of it as possible to the sun and the air, while the animal creates folds and such within its alimentary canal so as to provide a large surface area for effective digestion. Hallé notes that plants resemble fractals externally. (p. 52)
The waste products of animals bring forth (to our sensitivities) malodorous compounds as do their decomposing bodies. Hallé explains why this is so on pages 148-151, and why the waste products of plants and their decomposing bodies do not usually offend us; indeed the smell of new mown hay and forest humus or even a compost pile, can be very agreeable. On page 149 he favors us with a drawing of a tree which grows in part upon the waste products of its metabolism stored in its trunk. Next to the tree Hallé has a dog on top of a pile of its excrement, noting that "An animal that stored its excrement would also be capable of becoming very tall."
Hallé's love of plants and his deep respect for them, and his life-long experience in studying them comes through most wonderfully in this fine book. Although technical, it is accessible to amateur botanists and just plain old gardeners and lovers of plants with just a little effort.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
July 10, 2018
Les axes abordés par Hallé afin de comprendre la plante ont été pour moi une révélation ainsi qu'une invitation à penser autrement. Il évite soigneusement les zoocentrismes afin de mieux comprendre nos voisines et en plongeant dans leur univers avec des angles aussi variés que la biochimie, l'évolution, la forme, etc. Il emprunte même certains vers à des poètes qui ont, selon lui, bien cerné l'essence de la plante. I mean... c'est quand même hot. Bref, j'ai adoré, même si certains passages concernant la biochimie des plantes étaient plus difficiles à comprendre étant donné mes faibles connaissances de base en la matière.
April 10, 2023
An introduction to the life of plants, and how it compares with that of animals.
Plants are living organisms, similar to animals in many ways. And yet, there are a few key differences in lifestyle that have enormous consequences. Hallé explores the role and lifestyle of plants, and why that naturally leads to the forms and behaviors we're so used to. He starts from individual cells, then moves on to describe growth, reproduction, and evolution. There are countless examples throughout of plants being surprisingly animal-like, as well as surprisingly alien.
This book is as beautiful and moving as it is informative. It uses clear, accessible language, which gets poetic and romantic at times. It's full of illustrations and cartoons that are fun and help the ideas hit home. I feel the author really succeeds in presenting plants from a plant's perspective. For me, it was eye-opening to get such a vivid picture of another kind of life, at once familiar and strange. This book is filled with fascinating botanical facts, but more importantly they're put together very elegantly to tell a story, and to show the reader a powerful perspective on life that few get to see and appreciate.
This book was a delight to read, highly informative, and eye opening. It's a great book if you want to learn about the plant kingdom, but also just to understand life better. I feel I appreciate animals in a new way, having seen how they complement and contrast with plants. If that interests you at all, then I highly recommend this book.
Plants are living organisms, similar to animals in many ways. And yet, there are a few key differences in lifestyle that have enormous consequences. Hallé explores the role and lifestyle of plants, and why that naturally leads to the forms and behaviors we're so used to. He starts from individual cells, then moves on to describe growth, reproduction, and evolution. There are countless examples throughout of plants being surprisingly animal-like, as well as surprisingly alien.
This book is as beautiful and moving as it is informative. It uses clear, accessible language, which gets poetic and romantic at times. It's full of illustrations and cartoons that are fun and help the ideas hit home. I feel the author really succeeds in presenting plants from a plant's perspective. For me, it was eye-opening to get such a vivid picture of another kind of life, at once familiar and strange. This book is filled with fascinating botanical facts, but more importantly they're put together very elegantly to tell a story, and to show the reader a powerful perspective on life that few get to see and appreciate.
This book was a delight to read, highly informative, and eye opening. It's a great book if you want to learn about the plant kingdom, but also just to understand life better. I feel I appreciate animals in a new way, having seen how they complement and contrast with plants. If that interests you at all, then I highly recommend this book.
July 18, 2019
If I were World Dictator, everyone would be required to read the first chapter, last chapter, and epilogue of this book annually!
I'll be candid: Hallé almost lost me during the first third of Chapter 2. But my persistence paid off handsomely. Hallé brings perspectives to the science unlike any I have encountered in my so-far two-year-old enthusiasm for botany. While I would not recommend this as a starting point for someone just beginning to study plants, I cannot recommend it highly enough for those with a reasonable popular-science level grounding in the field. (One note: this book was published in 1999, so some of the science is a little dated.)
But even without that grounding, you should see if your library has this book available, and you should read the first chapter, last chapter, and epilogue. (Only 38 pages, with pictures taking up much of that.)
I'll be candid: Hallé almost lost me during the first third of Chapter 2. But my persistence paid off handsomely. Hallé brings perspectives to the science unlike any I have encountered in my so-far two-year-old enthusiasm for botany. While I would not recommend this as a starting point for someone just beginning to study plants, I cannot recommend it highly enough for those with a reasonable popular-science level grounding in the field. (One note: this book was published in 1999, so some of the science is a little dated.)
But even without that grounding, you should see if your library has this book available, and you should read the first chapter, last chapter, and epilogue. (Only 38 pages, with pictures taking up much of that.)
read-excerpt
September 19, 2024read Chapter 2
there is a really long comment from the translator and it's literally put into the text itself, just bracketed. like it's its own paragraph in the text, I guess it was too long to make a footnote or put in the margins. the translator (David Lee) got a little excited
there is a really long comment from the translator and it's literally put into the text itself, just bracketed. like it's its own paragraph in the text, I guess it was too long to make a footnote or put in the margins. the translator (David Lee) got a little excited
September 21, 2020
Cinq étoiles sont loin de suffire pour ce firmament !
Lecture extraordinaire, exigeante mais abordable pour le profane. Les amoureux des plantes seront comblés.
Lecture extraordinaire, exigeante mais abordable pour le profane. Les amoureux des plantes seront comblés.
Read
December 1, 2020bad title, fascinating book
March 21, 2016
This botany book is blowing my mind. It is dense, often technical, translated from the French. It is also lucid, occasionally lyrical, and chock full of observations and analysis that will give you refreshing perspectives on what strange and amazing creatures plants are, and just how fascinatingly, utterly, mind-bogglingly different they are from life as we're used to thinking of it, a.k.a. animals. It is also filled with adorable and often very helpful line drawings making its points. It goes deep into plant development, genetics, and evolution, and as someone whose liberal arts education included no more than the required 9 hours of natural sciences, there were parts I had to read twice and parts I'm sure I didn't fully absorb, but it is totally worth it.
August 9, 2014
This book totally changed the way I look at plants (and our relationship with plants).
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews