annieb123's Review of Lessons from Plants

by Beronda L Montgomery

An exploration of how plant behavior and adaptation offer valuable insights for human thriving.

We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don't just passively provide. They also take action.

Beronda L. Montgomery explores the vigorous, creative lives of organisms often treated as static and predictable. In fact, plants are masters of adaptation. They "know" what and who they are, and they use this knowledge to make a way in the world. Plants experience a kind of sensation that does not require eyes or ears. They distinguish kin, friend, and foe, and they are able to respond to ecological competition despite lacking the capacity of fight-or-flight. Plants are even capable of transformative behaviors that allow them to maximize their chances of survival in a dynamic and sometimes unfriendly environment.

Lessons from Plants enters into the depth of botanic experience and shows how we might improve human society by better appreciating not just what plants give us but also how they achieve their own purposes. What would it mean to learn from these organisms, to become more aware of our environments and to adapt to our own worlds by calling on perception and awareness? Montgomery's meditative study puts before us a question with the power to reframe the way we live: What would a plant do?

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Lessons from Plants is an engaging and philosophical look at the way plants react, adapt, and survive in their ecological niche and how those mechanisms can potentially inform our human interactions. Due out 6th April 2021 from Harvard University Press, it's 240 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a well annotated and academically rigorous (but layman accessible) multi-discipline look at human behaviors with comparisons drawn from the world of botany. The chapters are written thematically: adaptability, competition and cooperation (and distinguishing between them), risk, growth and transformation, diversity, and success. This is not -just- botany as an analogy for feel-good pop psychology. This is exactly as advertised, a multi-disciplinary exploration of some complex and fascinating botanical and ecological mechanisms which are well explained, science based, layman accessible and also applicable to our lives and experiences. The author, Dr. Beronda L. Montgomery, has a calm and capable voice and does a good job of rendering concepts in understandable straightforward language. She (happily) never devolves into overwrought academic constructions to obfuscate or attempt to make herself seem more intelligent. I can easily imagine she would be a capable and worthwhile lecturer (in whatever discipline).

The book is enhanced throughout by the addition of simple line drawn graphics to illustrate salient points. The chapter annotations will provide keen readers with many hours of further reading.

This is admittedly a niche read, but it would undoubtedly make a good selection for library acquisition or book club use. I would also recommend it for the philosophy minded gardener or students of the human condition.

Four and a half stars. Rounded up for the comprehensive annotations and clear and concise writing.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Lessons from Plants

by Beronda L Montgomery

Reviewed by annieb123 on Mar 17, 2021

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