The Secret Life of Plants

The world of plants and its relation to mankind as revealed by the latest scientific discoveries. "Plenty of hard facts and astounding scientific and practical lore."--Newsweek

Customer Reviews:

Your best friends.....

By Dianne Foster "Di" - July 25, 2002

THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird is a wonderful book of wisdom about the plant world and life in general. Like many people my age, I cut my teeth on Disney's "Living Desert" back in the 1950s. That film killed the notion for me that nothing lives in Death Valley and if Death Valley can be alive what else is possible?SECRET LIFE is like the old Disney films because the book describes science that challenges stereotypical mainstream thinking. Anyone who believes plants are sentient beings will love this book. If you've done much reading on this subject you've probably seen Tompkins and Bird quoted elsewhere.In the first part of their book, the authors explore the attributes of plants and pretty much conclude they have everything in common with animals-except plants probably came first on the evolutionary ladder and prepared the way for animals. In fact, if earth was invaded by alien species, the authors suggest the aliens were probably plants. But,... read more

this will forever change how you view your houseplants......

By D. Pawl "Dani" - May 25, 2007

I am not exaggerating. When I picked up a copy of THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS, to go on a journey into the previously "unknown" world of plants, it was listed as, both, a new age and an occult book. Yes, to some it sounds pretty woo woo and out there that the common houseplant could take such a liking to Brahms, or such a disliking to hard rock music, that it would be driven to either thrive or shrivel. Yet, according to scientists and scientific scholars, stranger things have happened--and, in their words and by their accounts, they really DID happen! For example, plants who were the subjects of numerous tests and studies in a laboratory, were proven to have "human-like" feelings for the people that they were introduced to. In fact, the relationships progressed to the point that when one of the participants in the study nearly got run over by public transportation on the street, the participating plant was recorded in reacting in alarm to the peril that the human subject was put... read more

Loopy and fascinating

By A. Bannigan - August 9, 2005

This book changed my life. I found it absolutely fascinating and was stunned when my PhD supervisor (I'm a plant biologist) told me that she had read it too. I was interested to know where the amazing information came from that they present and was dissapointed, but not particularly surprised, that all the "science" that they refer to is published in journals with names like "The Russian Journal of Parapsychology" and the like. Not a single one was in a journal that I could easily get access to, so, while it is wonderful food for thought and a great hommage to the importance and wonder of plants, the evidence they present should be taken with a grain of salt unless you can find other research backing it up. But enjoy. It really is mind-boggling!