Notes From an Environmetalist.
Plants Eat Light, Isn't that Enough?
My geraniums enjoying that old time rock and roll.
“Why Should a Plant Care About Mozart? They Can Eat Light, isn’t that Enough?”
Tim Plowman
1973
“The secret Life of Plants” came out in 1973. The popular book’s overblown science spurred plant lovers to lovingly play classical music to their geraniums. But the science is suspect, my geraniums prefer that old time rock and roll.
But a lot has happened in botany since 1973 and the new findings are engagingly described by Zoe Schlanger in her fascinating new book with the insightful title, “The Light Eaters.”
The book delves into how plants communicate with each other, and warn relatives of marauding caterpillars so they can mount a chemical defense and remember how the thwart the same predators if they meet them again.
One of plants’ tricks is to release chemicals that attract predatory wasps that lay eggs in the caterpillars. The eggs then hatch and eat the caterpillars from the inside out.
Plants even feel the equivalent of pain and send out chemical signals of distress when a herbivore is chewing on their leaves. So, the next time you are enjoying the smell of a new mown grass or walking across your lawn, remember it is the grass in pain, yelling at you to walk on the sidewalk for gosh sakes.
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