The action plant
Subtitle: movement and nervous behaviour in plants
By: Paul Simons.
Publisher: Blackwell
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 323
Subjects: Plants -- Irritability and movements.
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-308) and index.