Named a Best Book of the Year for the Know-It-All by The Globe
and Mail
In this richly illustrated volume, a leading neurobiologist presents
fascinating stories of plant migration that reveal unexpected
connections between nature and culture.
When we talk about migrations, we should study plants to understand that
these phenomena are unstoppable. In the many different ways plants move,
we can see the incessant action and drive to spread life that has led
plants to colonize every possible environment on earth. The history of
this relentless expansion is unknown to most people, but we can begin
our exploration with these surprising tales, engagingly told by Stefano
Mancuso.
Generation after generation, using spores, seeds, or any other means
available, plants move in the world to conquer new spaces. They release
huge quantities of spores that can be transported thousands of miles.
The number and variety of tools through which seeds spread is
astonishing: we have seeds dispersed by wind, by rolling on the ground,
by animals, by water, or by a simple fall from the plant, which can
happen thanks to propulsive mechanisms, the swaying of the mother plant,
the drying of the fruit, and much more.
In this accessible, absorbing overview, Mancuso considers how plants
convince animals to transport them around the world, and how some plants
need particular animals to spread; how they have been able to grow in
places so inaccessible and inhospitable as to remain isolated; how they
resisted the atomic bomb and the Chernobyl disaster; how they are able
to bring life to sterile islands; how they can travel through the ages,
as they sail around the world.
