Book Review: Stefano Mancuso’s The Revolutionary Genius of Plants

If plants could speak what would they say?  Mancuso’s book: The Revolutionary Genius of Plants  gives us a pretty good idea. A revealing look at the plant domain of complex communication, and self preservation systems regularly occurring unbeknown to us.

For those who thought plant communication was a hippy dippy thing, a mythical idea reserved for tree huggers and plant lovers without any basis in scientific reality, this book is for you.

Stefano Mancuso, is the premier authority in the field of plant neurobiology, and a professor at the University of Florence. He studies the ability of plants to perceive via their root apexes, and do the things humans do in a different way. Each chapter of his book reveals how plant perception and sensitivity have often been underestimated.

Paradigm Shift

This book proclaims the scientific revolution that Thomas Kuhn predicts in science, and heralds a shift in the paradigm of our understanding plant expression.

Packed with details of past experiments, many of which were started with new specimens arriving in Europe during the time of Empire Building, and colonial expansionism. Mancuso also looks to the future with current science seeking new ways to include plants in space exploration.

Historically, Mancuso explains that results of plant experiments were often ignored in the past because plants were compared to animals, therefore thought not to do much more except convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The do not move, and do not make noise.

“our eyes see only what seems to be similar to us and ignore anything that is different.”

Mancuso enthusiastically draws on history, philosophy and politics to show how our thoughts on the plant species have been shaped not by scientific facts, but by comfortable assumptions which tied into a particular world view. This foible could be the headline for our current human interaction.

Future Benefits

The truth is far more complicated. We monitor SETI for extraterrestrial communication, but  we are only now grasping that plant life forms on earth communicate in complex ways, and do much more than provide us with oxygen, food, shelter.

“The topography of the internet is very similar to that of a root system, because it responds to the same needs, a distributed system with no central command.”

Illustrated throughout with absolutely beautiful photographs, the pages lift magnified details of  plants which serve to deepen the complexity of the tapestry.

He details how we humans have learned from plants: how they have influenced architecture, how they tolerate stress, and how humans bank seeds for a rainy day.

I remember staring at the Victoria Amazonica, floating in the greenhouse pond at Kew Gardens as a young child, wondering if the large lily pad could support my weight. Well, apparently engineers wondered this too and were able to use this model to develop weight baring stress technology.

We are taken on a journey of understanding how plants do what they do without a central nervous system. During the pandemic plants, especially indoor plants, have become very popular. A better understanding of our new best friends is very timely.

Plants Are Us

If you have just become a plant aficionado, or are an experienced plant parent, this book will provide incredible insights into the intricate survival mechanisms, not only of plants, but it also holds up a mirror to our own interactions.

He uses Wikipedia as an example of how an organization can succeed without any hierarchical or administrative control, as this is what he says plant organizations are able to do.

“The idea that democracy is an institution against nature therefore remains just one of the more seductive lies invented by man to justify his (unnatural) thirst for individual power.”

Once you read this book, you will never look at plants in the same way.