Rare Reads | Rare

Book of the Month

The Light Eaters
Zoë Schlanger

Plants may be alive, like animals and humans, but they certainly aren’t conscious. Without nervous systems or brains, plants can’t possibly think, learn, communicate, or adapt to their surroundings like we do.

Or, do they? How can trees send nutrients to other trees when they begin to die, or how can some plants release chemicals to ward off predators? When you sit down and think about it, how much do you really know about plants?

For this month’s Rare Reads, we’re diving into the world of botany with Zoë Schlanger’s book, The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. We’ll learn to see plants as more than just a “green smudge,” and maybe even rethink our very notion of consciousness itself.

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Discussion questions:

1. Take a walk in your neighborhood or garden and see how many plants you can identify. Are there any plants you never noticed before? How can you overcome “plant blindness?”
2. What is your stance on plant consciousness? Is it fair to measure consciousness and intelligence based on our human-centric point of view?
3. Schlanger describes the intimate role that plants play in our lives – for example, they keep us alive by supplying our planet’s life-sustaining oxygen. What do we lose when we overlook the role of plants in our existence as a species?
4. Think back to our previous Rare Reads pick, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall-Kimmerer. (Schlanger mentions Kimmerer’s seminal book, Braiding Sweetgrass in Chapter 7). What are the limitations of “Western” science on botany, and how does Schlanger critique this narrow view of plant life?

Rare stories related to the book:

🌱  The Mothers of the Mangrove
🌊  World Wetlands Day 2025
🧑🏽‍🌾  Preserving paradise: A community approach to saving the Belize Maya Forest