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Based on the immensely popular six-part BBC program that aired in the United States during the fall of 1995, this book offers what writer/filmmaker David Attenborough is best known for delivering: an intimate view of the natural world wherein a multitude of miniature dramas unfold. In the program and book, both titled The Private Life of Plants , Attenborough treks through rainforests, mountain ranges, deserts, beaches, and home gardens to show us things we might never have suspected about the vegetation that surrounds us. With their extraordinary sensibility, plants compete endlessly for survival and interact with animals and insects: they can see, count, communicate, adjust position, strike, and capture. Attenborough makes the plant world a vivid place for readers, who in this book can enjoy the tour at their own pace, taking in the lively descriptions and nearly 300 full-color photos showing plants in close detail.


The author reveals to us the aspects of plants' lives that seem hidden from view, such as fighting, avoiding or exploiting predators or neighbors, and struggling to find food, increase their territories, reproduce themselves, and establish their place in the sun. Among the most amazing examples, the acacia can communicate with other acacias and repel enemies that might eat their leaves, the orchid can impersonate female wasps to attract males and ensure the spreading of its pollen, the Venus's flytrap can take other organisms captive and consume them. Covering this remarkable range of information with enthusiasm and clarity, Attenborough helps us to look anew at the vegetation on which all life depends and which has an intriguing life of its own. He has created a book sure to please the plant lover and any other reader interested in exploring the natural world.

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Library Journal Review

Intrepid naturalist Attenborough (Trials of Life, Little, Brown, 1991) once again stalks the planet to find the most fascinating and exquisite specimens to illustrate the wonders of the living world. There are plants in this book that this natural history reviewer and botany major never saw before, such as the Sumatran titan arum with its nine-foot-tall inflorescence and the equally elusive British ghost orchid, which regularly reappears after being declared extinct. Attenborough notes that plants "must grapple with much the same problems as animals, including ourselves," and describes these endeavors in chapters on traveling, feeding and growing, flowering, social struggle, living together, and surviving. Other popularizations have covered the same basic territory, but rarely in such a captivating way. Highly recommended for natural history collections at all levels. [This is a companion to a six-part BBC series that will air this fall in the United States.‘Ed.]‘Beth Clewis, Prince William P.L. System, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Neither a text nor a reference work, this beautifully written, strikingly illustrated book is intended for the general public. Its utility in the college environment comes from its inspirational value. Attenborough's book, based on his BBC program of the same name, is packed with fascinating, generally accurate anecdotes about the plant world and especially about plant/animal interactions. The chapters have titles such as "Travelling," which covers mainly seed dispersal, and "Feeding and Growing," which discusses photosynthesis at a grade-school level but gives many nontechnical examples of herbivory, plant defenses, and carnivorous plants. Attenborough uses common names for plants and there are no references to the primary literature, but the scientific names appear in the index and the book may well stimulate nonscience majors or beginning botany students to explore further on their own. Arthur Galston's Life Processes of Plants (CH, Jun'94) is also intended for the general public, but it focuses on plant physiology, contains more scientific evidence, and includes brief bibliographies with each chapter. H. L. Gorton; St. Mary's College of Maryland

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Sir David Attenborough, a Fellow of the Royal Society, is also a Trustee of the British Museum and an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He is an internationally esteemed producer, and has written the bestselling books accompanying his television series Trials of Life , The Living Planet , and Life on Earth . For many weeks The Private Life of Plants was a number-one bestseller in the United Kingdom.