Starred review from March 18, 2024
Schlanger, a staff writer at the Atlantic, debuts with an astounding exploration of the remarkable abilities of plants and fungi. Highlighting recent research suggesting many plants are “composites of interpenetrating forms of life,” Schlanger details Peruvian ecologist Ernesto Gianoli’s theory that the Chilean boquila vine, which changes the appearance of its leaves to mimic nearby plants, receives shape-shifting direction from microorganisms “hijacking and redirecting” the vine’s genes. Other plants appear capable of communication, Schlanger contends, explaining that the Sitka willow can “alter the contents of its leaves to be less nutritious” when threatened by hungry caterpillars and transmit airborne chemical signals prompting other trees to take similar defensive action before they’re attacked. Investigating whether plants can be said to have personalities, Schlanger describes ecologist Richard Karban’s ongoing research into whether differences in how strongly individual sagebrush plants respond to internal and external distress signals are consistent over time (“Natural-born scaredy-cats” might respond “wildly at the slightest disturbance”). There are mind-bending revelations on every page, and Schlanger combines robust intellectual curiosity with delicate lyricism (“Pearlescent wetness clings to everything like spider silk,” she writes of the Hawaiian cliffs where a botanist rappels to pollinate an endangered hibiscus). Science writing doesn’t get better than this.