“The leaves of the trees which are between you and the sun are of five principal shades of color, namely a green most beautiful, shining and serving as a mirror for the atmosphere which lights up objects that cannot be seen by the sun, and the parts in shadow that only face the earth, and those darkest parts which are surrounded by something other than darkness.”

                                —– From The  Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Hannon writes:

There is a wonderful book I think you would enjoy and profit by reading: In Praise of Plants, by Francis Halle (Timber Press 2002). 

I’ve only started reading it. Halle [accent on “e”] has a uniquely unorthodox outlook on things and is co-author of one of my favorite books, though an essentially technical one, on tropical tree architecture. It is fascinating and a unique contribution. In Praise he develops some ideas of evolution that will stretch the thinking of any biologist. For instance, the fact that some trees exhibit genetic variation within an individual that amounts to different branches functioning as genetically distinct units. Thus different mutations can be, at least in theory, passed along in seed reproduction via different parts of the plant, a revolutionary concept.

He also considers more recent evidence that not all growth and development is directly the result of control by genes in the case of plants.

From the book:

“Completely naked and trembling, the great oak outside my window stays there through the winter night, exposed to powerful gusts from the sea and lashings of hail, while in my bright lodgings, dry and warm, I have the leisure to reflect on this astonishing contrast. Doing this, it seems to me that we, the oak and I, express the opposing evolution of plants and animals. Some are free; some submit and adapt.”

Also, cited in the book:

“Where are the men?” the little prince asked, politely.

The flower had once seen a caravan passing.

“Men?” she echoed. “I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.”

—- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince, 1943 

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