Getting to know our green neighbors

Getting to know our green neighbors

Cover of "The Light Eaters" by Zoe Schlanger.

Provided

This installment of The Ungardener was to be about soil health but I will save that topic as I am compelled to tell you about a book I finished exactly three minutes before writing this sentence. It is called “The Light Eaters.” Written by Zoe Schlanger, a journalist by background, the book relays both the cutting edge of plant science and the outdated norms that surround this science. I promise that, in reading this book, you will be fascinated by what scientists are discovering about plants which extends far beyond the notions of plant communication and commerce — the wood wide web — that soaked into our consciousnesses several years ago. You might even find, as I did, some evidence for the empathetic, heart-expanding sentiment one feels in nature.

A staff writer for the Atlantic who left her full-time job to write this book, Schlanger has travelled around the world to bring us stories from scientists and researchers that evidence sophisticated plant behavior. These findings suggest a kind of plant ‘agency’ and perhaps even a consciousness; controversial notions that some in the scientific community have not been willing or able to distill into the prevailing human-centric conceptions of intelligence.

Plants exhibit behaviors that appear as variations of our own: they communicate, but using chemicals that are expelled through the air or soil. They have perceptual abilities that can be correlated, with varying degrees, to our sound, feeling and sight, in some cases using the same or similar mechanisms as we do. The human body uses electrical currents, powered by electrolytes, to enable just about every bodily action — touch, movement, thought etc. Plants use this method as well.

We learn about a slug that from birth is programmed to find and eat a specific plankton. When it does, its color changes from its original brown to green and the slug is then able to photosynthesize, after which it never has to eat food for the rest of its life (is it now a plant or still an animal?) A vine whose leaves change shape to resemble those of the plant or plants it climbs on (can it ‘see’ and, if not, how does it know what to transform into?)

In researching and relaying these and other science-backed revelations, Schlanger calls into question the line drawn between the categories of animal and plant. We know that we exist in this world only because of plants, they create the air we breathe, they are the nutrients we eat. We are learning that our bodies contain a microbiome made up of bacteria, fungi and viruses that control much of our functioning. Yet humanity seeks to control plants in ways that are often at cross purposes to our very existence.

While retaining a journalistic dispassion, she makes the case for science to surmount the hurdle that language poses in the pursuit of expressing new findings and posits a worldview that does not put humans at the center. Currently, the institutions surrounding science are designed to be circumspect in their effort to ensure that findings are not just correct but indelibly reliable; a base to be built on by other scientists. Scientists and researchers whose discoveries are at odds with prevailing findings are at risk of losing credibility, funding and even their careers, often to find themselves (if they are still alive) proven correct decades later. Which calls into question the reliability of science’s erstwhile indelibility and makes a case for systemic changes to the institutions that power the scientific community.


“Biological life is a spiraling diffusion of possibilities, fractal in its profusion.” 

Schlanger’s observations and hypotheses can themselves appear as fractals of her revelatory reporting of plant discoveries. Like the shape-shifting entities she writes about she finds that she too has changed.

Perhaps you can relate. Plants can change us, and not just when we eat them. Looking at them, from both far and from close, they provoke awe and wonder. Time spent in the woods begets a sense of oneness and interconnectedness and has been proven to improve our well-being. Schlanger’s book asks us to consider working with plants, to learn more about them and be open to the lessons they may have for us. After all, plants were here well before humans and have had more time to evolve. They may well be here after we are not. Who’s to say they aren’t really the ones running the show?


Dee Salomon “ungardens” in Litchfield County.

Latest News

Books and bites beckon at the upcoming Sharon Summer Book Signing

Author and cartoonist Peter Steiner signed books at Sharon Summer Book Signing last summer.

Photo by Stephanie Stanton

The 27th annual Sharon Summer Book Signing at the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon will be held Friday, Aug. 1, from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 3, at noon.

Friday’s festivities will honor libraries and the power of the written word. In attendance will be 29 locally and nationally recognized authors whose books will be for sale. With a wide array of genres including historical fiction, satire, thrillers, young adult and non-fiction, there will be something for every reader.

Keep ReadingShow less
Voices from Ukraine to America come to Stissing Center July 27

Ukraine Emergency Fundraiser at The Stissing Center in 2022 raised over $120,000 for Sunflower of Peace.

Photo by Michael Churton

The spirit of Ukraine will be on display at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains on Sunday, July 27. Beginning at 5 p.m., the “Words to America from Ukraine” fundraiser is set to showcase the simultaneous beauty of Ukrainian culture and the war-time turmoil it faces, all the while fundraising in support of Ukrainian freedom.

“Words to America from Ukraine” aims to remind and spread awareness for the suffering that often gets forgotten by those who live in comfortable worlds, explained Leevi Ernits, an organizer for the event. “We are trying to make an attempt to remind people that we are human, and we are connected with human values,” she said. “With very few words, poetry can express very deep values.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Grumbling Gryphons’ set to celebrate 45th anniversary with gala and summer theater camp

Celebrating its 45th year, the Grumbling Gryphons will perform at HVRHS Friday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.

Photo provided

The Grumbling Gryphons Traveling Children’s Theater is preparing to celebrate its 45th year — not with fanfare, but with feathers, fabric, myth, chant, and a gala finale bursting with young performers and seasoned artists alike.

The Gryphons’ 2025 Summer Theater Arts Camp begins July 28 and culminates in a one-night-only performance gala at Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Friday, Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. Founder, playwright, and artistic director, Leslie Elias has been weaving together the worlds of myth, movement and theater for decades.

Keep ReadingShow less
Learning calligraphy by hand

Attendees practive brushstrokes led by calligraphy teacher Debby Reelitz.

Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

Calligrapher Debby Reelitz came to the David M. Hunt Library to give a group of adults and children an introduction to modern calligraphy Thursday, July 17.

Reelitz said she was introduced to calligraphy as a youngster and has been a professional calligrapher and teacher for more than 25 years.

Keep ReadingShow less