How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do

by Linda Chalker-Scott

How Plants Work brings the stranger-than-fiction science of the plant world to vivid life! It explains how plants tell time, how they move to follow the sun and capture food, and why they change color.  Linda Chalker-Scott, of the popular blog The Garden Professors, uncovers these and other fascinating mysteries in this engaging and accessible introduction to plant physiology. By revealing the science behind what plants do every day, this book arms you with information that will change the way you garden. You’ll learn how to fertilize and prune more effectively, how to weed less than you ever have, and how to determine which garden products are worth your time and money.

Genres: Gardening, Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Plants, Biology, Horticulture

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2015

About the author

Linda Chalker-Scott is an urban horticulturist and associate professor at Puyallup Research and Extension Center, Washington State University. She is the author of The Informed Gardener, winner of the Best Book Prize from the Garden Writers Association. She is the editor and co-author of Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens, the Washington State editor of MasterGardener magazine, and author of the online column "Horticultural Myths." She has a new blog at gardenprofessors.com.

"

Reviews

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 5 out of 5]

Others have criticized this book for being full of far too basic facts for their tastes. Being relatively new to horticulture, I found this book to be both intensely enlightening and easy to read. The information built upon itself and nicely, and while at times the biochemistry was a bit beyond my grasp, I was still very happy to be exposed to it. I'm hoping the more I read on the subject the more I'll be able to absorb - perhaps enough even to one day return to this book and think it to be a very basic introductory text.

The author writes with great enthusiasm, and her passion for botany is infectious. I've already recommended this book to several people in my life and have been applying lessons learned from it to better understand my garden and the plants around me. It's interesting to be able to see how previous owners of the house have dealt with problems and understand why these solutions either worked or didn't. Now, moving forward, we'll be able to do better still.

I look forward to reading more by this author and to devour the books listed in the Further Reading section in the back. Hopefully by next spring I'll have a better notion of how to maintain my garden and help it grow.

[Bec · Rating 5 out of 5]

How Plants Work is a must have book for anyone with an interest in horticulture. With 9 sections Linda Chalker-Scott gives you the details on how the cells of plants work and with this base foundation start to build up from there. Linda answers questions such as how far roots spread and how deep they go, she explains photosynthesis and how this should affect the placement of a plant, why leaves turn red and much much more. The more a gardener understands the basics of how our plants work and interact with their environment the better gardeners we will be. This book is written for the average person in language that most should find easy to understand while being based on the latest science. If you like to garden no matter your skill level you should give this book a read, it will help you advance your skills and your landscape.

[Jaqui · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great! I'm not a gardener, but I want to be, and I like to research and read about hobbies before I start them -- this book was the perfect fit to get me started. I learned so much, really excellent practical tips and tricks for managing a garden. In all honesty, this book alone is probably going to save me tons of money and mistakes in the future.

It was a liiiiitle technical at certain points, enough to make my head spin a bit with terminology, but for good reason. And it was totally worth it to power through the microbiology lessons for a truly deep understanding of why and how plants behave the way they do. The plant world is so much more complex and rich than it seems. Getting into the details really teaches us how interconnected all life is, and how reliant we as a species are on the fundamental relationships in nature.

Now I want to go read more books on plants, for the first time ever in my life. :D

[João · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title says, the book explains how plants work! It takes a different approach from most books in that it doesn't really look at each plant part individually (e.g. leaves, stems, roots). Instead each chapter focuses on a specific plant system or behavior, which often requires multiple plant parts in order to function.

I enjoyed the book and learnt a fair bit, but as someone with no background in biology (not even high-school level stuff), some of the science jargon felt like it served to confuse me more than it did any good.

The book is trying to straddle a really really difficult line of being accessible enough while still being solidly rooted in proper scientific understanding. That's something I can really appreciate as a scientist myself, but somehow it didn't feel like it entirely hit the mark.

As a budding (eyoooo) gardener, while I ended up understanding a fair few new things, I do wish that the theory was eventually used to inform specific gardening practices. As it stands, the book mostly sticks to dispelling some common myths, but never really tells you how to garden properly - it's probably outside of its scope, but I do really wish it wasn't :)

The passable writing also has some slightly overly gendered overtones for my personal enby sensitivities, but nothing too egregious.

I'd recommend this for you if you know some basic biology of how cells work and are looking to nerd out by more deeply understanding plant behavior :)

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best science-based gardening book I've read thus far. Easier to read and much more applicable to what you see in the garden compared to Botany For Gardeners. There are a lot of epiphanies you'll have, especially in the front half of the book. One that comes to mind is that vegetables are much more prone to disease than native plants. This is because humans' have bred out all the compounds in the plant that taste bitter or wreak havoc on the body. These are the same chemicals that protect the plant from insects or fungal disease, so voila: this is why vegetables are so prone to insect damage. Just learning things like that made the book worth it for me.

Linda Chalker-Scott also is the goddess on gardening myths, so of course, these are sprinkled in here. Some myths include how compost tea and Epsom salts are essentially bs.

[Elena Acosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the writing style of this Linda, she is funny, sweet and coherent. This book makes plant mysteries accesible for non-biologist people like me. I started this book while I properly started my new hobby for gardening (properly meaning: not forgetting I have plants) so I read it alongside the growth of my apartment garden. It took me a long time since I googled everything’s that was hard for me to understand, even watched YouTube videos. I enjoyed this book like a sweet bread with milked coffee, slowly but satisfying.

[Anya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but not always useful

I was excited about this book because of the promise of example problems and the science of why they are happening and what to do. There are a few of those, but much of the book is spent on general information about plants that won’t be very applicable to the gardener or house plant owner. As a scientist I’m certainly interested in various quirky plant adaptations, but knowing about them won’t help me keep my plants alive, which is what I thought was offered in this book.

[KB · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How Plants Work" is an excellent introduction to the fascinating world of plant physiology and biochemistry. Linda Chalker-Scott discusses the key mechanisms of plant growth and behavior in a manner that is very accessible to ordinary gardeners. In her approach to the subject material, the author succeeds in demonstrating her technical expertise while simultaneously presenting complex concepts with language that can be easily understood by a layperson. None of the individual elements are belabored, with the result that the book manages to feel comprehensive in scope without becoming tedious. Additionally, numerous attractive full-color diagrams and photographs help to illustrate the scientific explanations provided by the high-quality text.

One may enjoyably read the whole book cover-to-cover (as this reviewer did), but the helpful index also allows a reader to reference specific topics non-linearly, as whim may dictate.

This book will serve as an excellent resource for gardeners, agriculturists, and anybody interested in the biology or chemistry of multicellular photosynthetic organisms.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe if I hadn't just read Botany for Gardeners: Third Edition I would have found this book more interesting. I feel like How Plants Work is probably great for very experienced gardeners who just want a smattering of knowledge about the inner workings of plants. But I am a beginning gardener, who also happens to be an engineer who loves to understand in great detail how things work. I was a little disappointed and at times I felt like I was being talked down to, because of the oversimplified explanations, especially in the chemistry sections. I did enjoy the full-color illustrations and large photographs, but overall this book was not for me.

[Henry David · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! Must read for those curious about why we ingest and live around. Plants are not animals! And this book dispels myths from the pharmo-agro industry in which artificial fertilizers and "compost tea" are just gimmicks that people invented to make a buck. The biggest take away from this book is that one should ALWAYS test his/her soil for what's missing or in abundance. Balance is key, as too much of one nutrient can inhibit growth or overall wellness of plants in respect to complicated plant/fungi/bacterial root systems!

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravo for someone actually willing to discuss biochemistry! Not a lot, obviously, but at least at the most fundamental level that is necessary for any kind of real understanding of plants. I feel like many plant books become just glorified lists and descriptions with no unifying principles, and I'm glad this info is at the fingertips of people who don't necessarily have time to study it at the college level.

[Tim Laushman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for any gardener who wants to know, well, how plants work! The chapter titles will let you know what sort of information is presented - how plants grow, move, tell time, change color, how roots work, and more.

Terms are defined in call-out, gardening myths are busted, and good gardening behaviors are outlined based on scientific evidence and research.

[Randy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading ‘On Natural Selection’ even though I devoured it because of the author’s excitement at the natural world more than because I understood much of the concepts, I remained undaunted. I decided to read this book to understand photosynthesis.

So as not to leave you hanging, I didn’t learn much. That’s not the book’s fault but that I don’t have the scientific background needed to understand the concepts deeply and in relationship to each other.

With Darwin, my big takeaway was about how little we actually know about life on our planet. While natural selection makes sense at a macro level it works on a micro level over a time period which is simply not human scale. Darwin amazed me as a thinker but his book left me with a humility for my kind that clearly doesn’t come to us naturally.

With this book and with plants it is clear on a more granular level that human intelligence as we revere it is so irrelevant to much else and shouldn’t make us so hellbent on shaping the world to our designs. The biological and chemical processes of plants are just not something humans should condescend to. Just because a tulip might not write an English language account of the tulip mania doesn’t mean it’s a lesser life form. This is exactly how we humans are trained to think.

This book also introduced me to inspiring words and concepts like nyctinasty which is the biochemical process which allows plants to close up their flowers when there isn’t enough sunlight and also to self pollination that occurs with some plants like shrinking violets and this is called cleistogamy.

[Andrew Welleford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned several fascinating things about plants in this book. How plants sense day (actually night!) length and the function of anthocyanins come to mind. The book has a conversational tone, which some people might prefer but that I found occasionally distracting from information I came for.

Dr. Chalker-Scott clearly takes pleasure in debunking popular garden practices for which she sees no support in the scientific literature of her field. While I respect and appreciate this approach, an impression I am left with from this book and the Garden Professor's Blog is one of outright hostility towards ideas that haven't yet been thoroughly examined in a formal academic manner. I do think she gets far more right than wrong, but I would reassure a gardener looking to experiment that just because Dr. Chalker-Scott says there's a lack of evidence supporting a practice doesn't mean it won't work.

[Anna Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be a plant geek, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's like a textbook without the textbook part. Interesting, informative, informational, but not heavy or boring. I actually was reading a different book that was SO BORING it was making me want to NEVER read another book ever again. But I thought (since I have a bazillion books in my house I still need to read) I better try another, just in case my love of reading and learning hadn't been completely extinguished.

And joyfully for me, this book was light enough, but in depth enough, that I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think I would have appreciated just a little more detail on photosynthesis - not because I don't know how it works, but because I'm a plant geek (wannabe) and I like to see those diagrams.

I'm going to use this book as the "textbook" for my botany/ecology class next year (supplemented by A LOT of other things, of course).

[Zinny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read although it included scientific language and it had memorable anecdotes for most topics. I really enjoyed the chapter on anthocyanins! Most of it is a good refresher/summary of plant functions, it also had some interesting new knowledge. She had lots of excerpts for useful tips or myth-busting. While they were usually relevant I found that they really interrupted my reading and were not well-placed. It was a quick, insightful read that I would recommend to a beginner-moderate level plant enthusiast

[Mikhael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racially/culturally/historically tonedeaf in wit. Attempts at wit include referring to root system as underground railroad, and clonal reproduction as storm troopers. Referred to seed protection mechanisms as "father with a shotgun protecting his daughter from boys". Bad wit distracts from otherwise reasonable content.

The book was informative, if you're looking to garden primarily aesthetically. I was hoping for more of a lesson in plant biology, not a gushing over rhododendrons, but I learned a decent amount reading it.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my 21 years of living on my own, I've always lived in an apartment. I've had zillions of houseplants for ages, and I've picked up some random knowledge about growing things over the years, but the truth is, I didn't know much at all. This book was a perfect introduction to, well, how plants work. I liked that it debunked a bunch of "recommended" treatments--things that a novice like me might fall for when embarking on landscaping/gardening for the first time. I still live in an apartment, but that won't be for forever, so I'm trying to learn some things now!

[ssk1075 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a plant physiology book distorted to make it look less geeky. Difficult read. Could not finish it. Would have been better to leave it as an actual plant physiology book. The fundamental question of why would some want to read this/ who would be the audience & why would they want to read this had been lost.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book full of important information ... but let down somewhat by a tendency to oversimplify some of the information. Aimed at beginners for the most part because this is stuff gardeners with a couply of seasons under their belts need/ought to know. Recommended.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully illustrated and gives great pictures of the concepts she so completely covers in the text! Nice blend of science and gardening tips. You will learn a lot by reading this and if you enjoy gardening, you will become a better gardener as well! Enjoy!

[Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly comprehensive in covering plant physiology and how we can use our understanding of plants to better work with nature—not against it. The debunking of supposedly beneficial practices was enjoyable, too.

[Dan Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fairly short but was incredibly interesting. The author takes a very scientific approach and explains why plants do what they do. Understanding the reason behind what plants do gives the reader the knowledge necessary to know when to plant, when to prune, etc. for optimal success.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I read about plants so far!

[Wayne Rucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat simple explanations of the interactions of plant systems. Very well done.

[Vickie Backus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and full of good advice and garden myth busting. Plant physical logo is complicated and the author does a good job of making it clear and how interesting.

[Ben Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this one was even better than the last one I read (Botany for Gardeners). More approachable yet also more science. Yay science!

[Crystal Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great details and engaging

I really enjoyed this book. It was highly readable yet contained good scientific detail. I definitely recommend checking it out.

[Cyndi Louden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction to botany

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

Informative book with lots of information. The heavy duty science is worded so most of us commoners can understand it