The Power of Movement in Plants

What it is

Published on 6 November 1880, this book was written by Charles Darwin with the help of his son Francis Darwin, who specialised in botany, and the assistance of George Romanes in editing. It studies how plants move, including their response to light (phototropism), touch, and gravity, and follows on from Darwin's earlier books on climbing plants and insectivorous plants.

Why it matters

The book continues Darwin's long project of showing how natural selection explains the adaptations of living things, this time in plant movement rather than animal form. Darwin identified a type of circular growth movement he called circumnutation as an important ability letting plants adapt to almost any environment, and he pointed out similarities between plants and animals in their sensitivity to touch, light and gravity. It shows Darwin, late in life, working as part of a father-son scientific team and still pushing his theory into new areas of biology.

Look closer

• Why might Darwin have needed his son's help to finish this book?
• What does Darwin's comparison between plant and animal responses suggest about how he saw the whole living world?
• What kind of patient, repeated experiments would be needed to study slow plant movements like these?