Is Plant Intelligence Real

The goal of this blog is to create a list of what I call super facts. Super facts are important and true facts that nevertheless are very surprising to many, misunderstood, or disputed among the public. They are special facts that we all can learn something important from. However, I also make posts that are not super facts but feature other interesting information, such as this book review and book recommendation.

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger – May 7, 2024

Below I am listing the four versions of this book. I bought the hardback version.

  • Hardback –  Publisher : Harper (May 7, 2024), ISBN-10 : 0063073854, ISBN-13 : 978-0063073852, 304 pages, item weight : 2.31 pounds, dimensions : 6 x 0.92 x 9 inches. It costs $ 19.90 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Paperback –  Publisher : Harper Perennial (May 13, 2025), ISBN-10 : 0063073862, ISBN-13 : 978-0063073869, 304 pages, item weight : 11.2 ounces, dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8 inches. It costs $15.99 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle –  Publisher : Harper (May 7, 2024), ASIN : B0CFM4SMPF, 298 pages, it costs $ 14.99on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • • Audiobook – Publisher : Harper (May 7, 2024), ASIN : B0CJWQ6X99, Listening length : 10 hours and 56 minutes. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
The front cover features a plant on a black background, the title and author of the book and the phrase “How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth”.
The front cover of The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardback version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of the Book

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024 • TIME’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 • New York Magazine’s 10 Best Books of the Year • Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024 • Smithsonian’s 10 Best Science Books of the Year •  A Best Book of the Year: Boston Globe, Scientific American,New York Public Library, Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly • An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Prize • Finalist for the Chautauqua Prize • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History

“A masterpiece of science writing.” ―Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

“Mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful.” ―Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

“Rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it!” ―Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction

Award-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of natural history and popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom, “destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself.” (The New Yorker)

It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit―a fascinating display of plant behavior and sensory abilities, to name just a few remarkable talents.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In this captivating exploration of plant intelligence, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.

What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how insights into plant communication influence our understanding of what a plant is.

We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for―if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants―and our own place―in the natural world, tackling the enthralling question of plant consciousness along the way.

This is my five-star review for The Light Eaters

It is a truly great and fact filled book

Plant Behavior and Communication is Real. What about Plant Intelligence?

This is a very interesting book that describes the ways plants behave and communicate via chemicals, fungus, sound, electric signals and light. Many plants even exhibit memory functions and are able mimic the look of other plants from a distance. A leaf is the only thing in our known world that can manufacture sugar out of materials, light and air, that have never been alive. They can produce complex chemicals, like caffeine, that humans and animals can’t produce. If weighed, plants would amount to 80% of Earth’s living matter. Plants can regrow virtually any amputated part. Some plants inject poisons into the ground around their roots to prevent anything else from growing nearby. Plants can recognize and protect their kin. Many plants will rearrange their leaves to avoid shading siblings. One of the points of the book is that we may have underestimated plants.

The book also discusses the possibility that plants may have a type of intelligence, perhaps even consciousness, depending on how you define it. This is a philosophical discussion. It should be noted that there was a very popular book in the 1970’s that made outlandish and pseudoscientific claims about plants. In the long run this book created a lot of skepticism towards claims within botany that seemed far-fetched despite collaborating evidence. The author laments this conservatism at the same time as she understands it. There is a problem with getting unconventional work published in botany, at the same time the arduous peer-review process is an essential safeguard against false paths.

However, it has been established that plants do a lot of amazing things, and we are just beginning to realize the extent of plant behavior and communication. Some examples are, plants can communicate with each other even when they are too far apart to be passing information through their roots (perhaps pheromonal substances). Plants produce electrical impulses and seem to have nodes at the tips of their roots that serve as local command centers. Plants can react to an attack of munching insects by summoning those insects’ specific predators to come and pick them up. Plants can perceive gravity, but we don’t know how. Primrose increases the sweetness of its nectar within three minutes if you play an audio recording of honeybee flight to it. Pea plants and many other plants grow their roots toward the sound of running water.

Other examples are, Tomatoes make thirty-five sounds per hour when drought stressed. Goldenrod can sense the volatile signals of nearby gall-forming flies and jump-start its immune system before the flies even make contact. Researchers who played tones at different frequencies to alfalfa sprouts for two hours saw that they increased the plants’ content of vitamin C. Plants can hear the caterpillars or pick up the vibrations they cause. Trichomes allow plants to sense the footsteps of moths and caterpillars.

Nasa poissoniana can store and recall information. It can remember the time intervals between bumble bee visits and anticipate the next time their pollinator was likely to arrive. Bittersweet nightshade recruit ants as bodyguards. Cornish mallow, a pink-flowered plant, will turn its leaves hours before sunrise to face the horizon in exactly the direction its expects the sun to rise. A common vine in this rainforest was capable of spontaneously morph into the shape of almost any plant it grew beside. Plant mimicry is not that unusual. Scientists have long observed that virtually all plants are highly sensitive to touch of any kind and will change their growth accordingly. The book features several dozen more amazing examples of plant behavior, communication, sensing, and forms of memory including generational memory.

The book also delves into some other topics such as the importance of microbes for both plants and animals, including humans. Microbes influence our immune systems, our smells, and our attractiveness to mosquitos. Emerging research suggests that they may play a role in autism, depression, anxiety, and possible even who we are attracted to. The author also notes that pollution steadily filling the air appears to sabotage plants ability to send and interpret each other’s signals.

This is a book that is filled with interesting and perhaps even shocking information, and it certainly made me more interested in plants and botany. I think the book made the outlandish ideas about plant intelligence and conscience appear almost plausible. Plants are all around us and they are more interesting than I thought. The book is also well written and well organized. I should say that I did not think the first three chapters were very interesting, but it got better the further I read. I highly recommend this book.

The back cover features a picture of a plant on a black background and praise for the book.
The back cover of The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardback version of the book.

To see the Super Facts click here

The Deadliest War in this Century was in Congo

Super fact 95 : More than 4-5 million people died in Congo Civil War 1998 to 2003 and its aftermath (until 2007). In addition, some of the other of the deadliest wars in the 21st century are not well known.

Below : 21st Century death toll from different wars, current and recent.

The graphics include colored circles corresponding to 15 wars. The conflicts are Second Congo Civil war 4 million deaths, Syrian Civil War 600 thousand deaths, Second Sudanese Civil War 450 thousand deaths, Russo-Ukrainian War 415 thousand deaths, War in Darfur 400 thousand deaths, South Sudanese Civil War 380 thousand deaths, Mexican drug war 375 thousand deaths, Yemeni civil war 370 thousand deaths, War in Afghanistan 360 thousand deaths, Boko Haram 350 thousand deaths, Iraqi war 285 thousand deaths, Colombia 225 thousand deaths, Chechen 150 thousand deaths, Angola 100 thousand deaths, Israel-Gaza War 75 thousand deaths, Israeli-Arab Total 80 thousand deaths.
The number of deaths cited in the graphics above correspond to rough midpoint values of the estimates for the 21st century. K stands for one thousand deaths. The area of the circles corresponds to these midpoint estimates. See the list of conflicts under “Deadliest twenty first Century Wars”.

Notes on the graphics above:

  • The 16 wars included in the graphics above roughly correspond to the deadliest wars in the 21st century. However, a few of the wars included in the graphics are not among the 16 deadliest wars of the 21st century.
  • Some of the wars included above started in the 20th century. The number of deaths estimates corresponds to the portions that happened in the 21st century.
  • The number of deaths from the Congo Civil War include famine and plagues that resulted from the war.
  • I had a hard time finding an estimate for just the 21st century portion of the Congo Civil War. However, the vast majority of the deaths happened in the 21st century.
  • The death estimates for the Russo-Ukrainian War might be underestimated due to unreliable reporting by Russian authorities.
  • The Israeli-Gaza war may seem smaller than expected. However, media attention does not necessarily correspond to the size of the devastation of a conflict.
  • The estimate for the number of deaths for the current Iran-US-Israel war is between 3,600 to nearly 5,400 deaths, which is too small to be part of this post.
  • There are / were hundreds of wars and conflicts in the 21st century.

I consider this a super fact because it is true, an important history fact and despite the enormous losses in the Congo Civil War a lot of people do not know much about it and may not even have heard about it.

The Deadliest War in this Century was in Congo
Photo by Safi Erneste on Pexels.com

Deadliest Wars in the Twenty First Century

  • The Second Congo Civil War 1998 to 2007. With an estimated 3 million to 5.4 million deaths. Read about it here, here, or here.
  • The Syrian civil war 2011 to 2024. With an estimated 580 thousand to 610 thousand deaths.
  • Second Sudanese Civil War 1983 to 2005. With an estimated 2 million deaths in total, with 300,000 to 600,000 deaths occurring in 21st century.
  • Tigray War 2020 to 2022. With an estimated 160 thousand to 600 thousand deaths.
  • War in Darfur 2003 to 2020. With an estimated 400 thousand deaths.
  • Russo-Ukrainian War 2014 to present. With an estimated 350 thousand to 480 thousand deaths.
  • Mexican drug war 2006 to present. With an estimated 350 thousand to 400 thousand deaths.
  • South Sudanese Civil War 2013 to 2020. With an estimated 380 thousand deaths.
  • Yemeni civil war 2014 to present. With an estimated 370 thousand deaths.
  • War in Afghanistan 2001–2021. With an estimated 360 thousand deaths.
  • Boko Haram insurgency 2009 to present. With an estimated 350 thousand deaths.
  • Iraqi war 2003 to 2017. With an estimated 270 thousand to 300 thousand deaths.
  • Colombian conflict 1964 to present. With an estimated 450 thousand deaths but with about half of those deaths happening in the intense fighting of the 21st century.
  • Chechen conflict 1994 to 2009. With an estimated 80 thousand to 230 thousand deaths, most  of those, 150 thousand, happening in the 21st century.
  • Angolan Civil War  1975 to 2002. With an estimated 800 thousand deaths many in the final years of the conflict with an estimated 100 thousand in the 21st century.
  • Burundian Civil War 1993 to 2005. With an estimated 550 thousand to 800 thousand deaths, many in the final years of the conflict with an estimated 50 thousand deaths in the 21st century.
  • The Arab Israeli conflict 1948 to present (multiple wars) . With an estimated 200 thousand deaths in total with 80 thousand deaths happening in the 21st century.
  • The Israel Gaza conflict (2023 to present). With an estimated 75 thousand deaths.

To read related posts of mine see “We are living in relatively peaceful times“ and “Deadliest Civil War Was the Taiping Rebellion”.

To see the other Super Facts click here

Human Vision Only Detects a Sliver of the EM Spectrum

Superfact 94: Light is electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic spectrum we deal with goes from long wave radiation at a frequency of 0.3 Giga Hertz to gamma rays at 30,000,000,000 Giga Hertz, and far beyond. Light that is visible to humans goes from around 428,000 Giga Hertz to 750,000 Giga Hertz. This is a very thin sliver in the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, many animals can see beyond the spectrum visible to humans.

Esther’s writing prompt: April 8 : Vision

Click here or here  to join in.

If you consider wavelength instead of frequency, the electromagnetic spectrum goes from gamma rays at a wavelength of 0.00000000001 meters to long waves at a wavelength of 1,000 meters. Visible light has a wavelength of 0.0000004 meters to 0.0000007 meters. Again, human vision corresponds to only a thin sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The picture shows the spectrum visible to humans as a horizontal bar at the top. This spectrum is superimposed on a wider spectrum below as a thin rainbow colored strip. The wider spectrum is also placed horizontally and goes from gamma rays to radio waves. | Human Vision Only Detects a Sliver of the EM Spectrum
The visible color spectrum. Sunlight wavelength and increasing frequency vector infographic illustration. Visible spectrum color range. Rainbow electromagnetic waves. Educational physics line. Shutterstock Asset id: 1933622132 by Shutterstock Asset id: 1933622132 WinWin artlab.
The electromagnetic spectrum is vertical and goes from long waves at the bottom to gamma rays at the top. The spectrum visible to humans is a thin sliver in the middle.
The spectrum visible to humans highlighted on a spectrum going from long waves to gamma rays. Original:  Penubag Vector:  Victor Blacus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

It should be noted that the spectra above go from long waves to gamma rays because that’s the range of the spectra we typically deal with. However, the electromagnetic spectrum continues far beyond that.

I consider “Human Vision Only Detects a Sliver of the EM Spectrum” a super fact because it is a well-known fact among those who have studied physics, and it is an important fact, and yet I believe it is a surprise to many.

The Spectrum Visible to Animals

A lot of animals can see beyond the spectrum visible to humans. For example, animals that can see UV light including reindeer, scorpions, butterflies, bees, salmon, hedgehogs, many birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Humans cannot see UV light. You can read about various animals that can see UV light here, here, and here.

It appears that dogs and cats can see UV light as well. The color vision of dogs is in general poor, at least on the red side of the visible spectrum. However, dog vision includes UV light that we cannot see.

There are two colorful horizontal bars in the picture representing how the spectrum appears to people and dogs. The top bar depicts human’s view, and the bottom one is dog’s view. The human’s view is more colorful, but the dog’s view extends into UV light on the left.
Picture is from psychology today.

Many animals can also see or detect infrared radiation. A famous example are snakes. However, many other animals can detect infrared radiation including mosquitos, beetles, and other insects, some bats, bullfrogs, wolves, foxes, and some fish.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

To see the Other Super Facts click here

Deadliest Civil War Was the Taiping Rebellion

Superfact 93 : Around 20 to 30 million people died in the Taiping Rebellion, 1850 to 1864. It is the deadliest civil war in known history, the deadliest war in the 19th century, and the second deadliest war in all of known history. World War II was the deadliest.

The graphics show differently colored circles corresponding to selected large wars. World War II – 80 million, Mongol conquests – 45 million, Taiping Rebellion – 25 million, World War I – 18 million, Russian Civil War – 10 million, Chinese Civil War 7 million, 30 years’ war 6 million, Napoleonic Wars – 5 million, Second Congo Civil War 4 million, Vietnam War 2.45 million, American Civil War 0.7 million. | Deadliest Civil War Was the Taiping Rebellion
The number of deaths cited in the graphics above are rough midpoint values of the estimates. The area of the circles corresponds to these midpoint estimates. Note Mongol conquests correspond to multiple wars during a time period of 162 years. The ‘M” corresponds to millions.

The Taiping rebellion is estimated to have caused the deaths of 20-30 million people. However, some estimates estimate that as many as 70 million people might have died in the Taiping rebellion. The Mongol invasions and conquests cost 30-60 million lives, but they comprised many wars and took place during a time period of 162 years (1206 – 1368). Therefore, you typically don’t count that as one war. Also note that the estimate for deaths caused by World War I does not include the Spanish flu.

I consider this a super fact because it is true, an important history fact and despite the enormous losses in the Taiping rebellion, a lot of people have never heard of it.

Photo by jefe king
Photo by jefe king on Pexels.com

Deadliest Wars

Illustration of Chinese warriors preparing outside a fortified city.
Taiping Rebels at Shanghai China in 1853-54. ‘Small Swords’ refers to daggers used by warriors or martial artists in close combat. 19th century print. Stock Illustration ID: 237232531 by Everett Collection.

The links above are from Encyclopedia Britannica and from Wikipedia. Also note that after the Napoleonic Wars entry I only listed wars that happened after World War II and resulted in around a million deaths. The exception is the American Civil War. The list would be too long otherwise.

The Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a theocratic monarchy that tried to overthrow the Qing dynasty. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, a religious leader who believed he was Jesus younger brother. In the end the Qing dynasty prevailed but at a great cost.

A map of China in the 19th century. It shows the extent of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and how it shrunk. | Deadliest Civil War Was the Taiping Rebellion
A map showing the extent of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The dark area is the extent towards the end. M.Bitton, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

To read a related post of mine with a different perspective see “We are living in relatively peaceful times“.

To see the other Super Facts click here

Reindeer Hide Memories

A photo of a reindeer walking up a hill. | Reindeer Hide Memories
A mountain reindeer (R. t. tarandus) from Sør-Varanger, in Norway. Are G Nilsen, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo is from this Wikipedia page.

Today is the second time I participate in Linda Hill’s streams of consciousness. To read about the rules and participate click here, or here. To read my previous entry (prompt was pre) click here. Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday April 4 is “hide”. Use it way you’d like. The first rule is: there should be minimal planning and no editing except typos.  First thing that came to my mind was reindeer hide. Notice that this is not a super fact post, but just a general informational / factual post. In addition, to writing about my experiences with reindeer hides I also downloaded a few pictures from Wikipedia.

The badge features a twig with rain drops and it says Stream of consciousness Saturday #SoCS
2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley!

Reindeer Hide Memories

I grew up northern Sweden where there are a lot of reindeer and reindeer hides. When we drove around on the north Swedish countryside, we often saw reindeer at the side of the road. Sometimes there were flocks of reindeer blocking the road. Unlike many other animals reindeer tends to be a little bit stupid about traffic and quite often they walked right in front of the cars. The risk for collision was quite high.

Reindeer Hide Memories |Distribution of Rangifer tarandus (Caribou/Reindeer) Red - Reindeer Around The World
Distribution of Rangifer tarandus (Caribou/Reindeer) Red – Reindeer (orange: introduced populations) Green – Caribou. TBjornstad 11:46, 31 October 2006 (UTC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Image is from this Wikipedia page.

A related interesting fact is that the in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and parts of Russia there is an Aboriginal people referred to as Sami. They are / were traditionally a nomadic people who followed and herded the reindeer. Reindeer hide is a very important item for the Samis, and used for clothing, footwear, tents, drums and musical instruments, rugs and bedding. Reindeer hide is also an important cultural item for us “regular” north Swedes. When I was a kid, we used reindeer hide for bedding, decoration, wall ornaments, and for cover when sitting outside on the snow or the ice.

A flock of reindeer with a person standing in the middle of them.
Reindeer herding. Mats Andersson, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo is from this Wikipedia page.

My kids here in Texas also have some experience with reindeer hides. When they were little, we visited the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden. The ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi is the original and largest ice hotel in the world. The beds in the ice hotel are made of ice and covered by reindeer hide to make it warm and soft. We also took a dog sled tour, and the sled was covered by reindeer hide for comfort. Below are some photos of us on a dogsled with reindeer hide and photos of ice beds with reindeer hide, including our room. I got these photos from my personal and very old family website.

My wife is sitting at the end of the sled and in front of her are the kids. Everyone is bundled up.
We are going on a dogsled tour. The ice theater is in the background, and you can see part of the ice hotel on the right. Notice the reindeer hide on the sled.
The photos show a dogsled with dogs and some people. The kåta on the left is pretty prominent in this photo. | Reindeer Hide Memories
On the left is a kåta, a movable Sami structure (indigenous arctic Scandinavian people). Kåtas were traditionally made with reindeer hide.
Stig left and Ulla right sitting on an ice bed in their room.
My dad Stig and his girlfriend Ulla came with us on the trip. Notice the reindeer hide on the ice bed.
We are all laying on top of our ice bed. We are inside our sleeping bags except my head and part of my body is out of the bag.
We are going to bed in our room. I think it was my wife Claudia who took the photo. Notice the reindeer hide on the ice bed.
There is a huge ice and snow decoration on the wall featuring an angry looking face.
Another room with a snowy wall decoration. Notice the reindeer hide on the ice bed.
A close up of an elaborate ice bed. | Reindeer Hide Memories
Some of the rooms were really beautiful. Notice the reindeer hide on the bed.
An ice room with an ice motorcycle and other ice art
Some of the rooms had beautiful ice art. Notice the reindeer hide on the bed.
A very large ice bedroom.
You had to pay more for a big room. You paid the price of Hilton and got the comfort of camping in winter. Notice the reindeer hide on the bed.
An ice bedroom with an ice statue of a moose. | Reindeer Hide Memories
More ice art. Notice the reindeer hide on the bed.
To see the Super Facts click here