THE beautiful blossoms that mark spring might well be a feast for the eyes, but they are also a fascinating puzzle. How do buds form? Why do they flower at a precise time? What allows the range of colours?
As molecular physiologist Maxine Singer explains in Blossoms, it is only in the past 30 years that revolutions in genetics have allowed science to give meaningful answers. Whatever can be understood can also be effectively manipulated, so there are now compelling economic as well as horticultural and agricultural reasons for probing the inner workings of flowers, their colours, time-sense and scents.
Much of the quest has been conducted using Arabidopsis, a small, unassuming weed whose short germination time, wide distribution and great variation made it experimental botany’s Drosophila. The complexity of timing, coordination and control of the events that take place on a branch near you have been teased out, molecule by molecule, interaction by interaction, using Arabidopsis and garden favourites such as petunias and snapdragons.
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Singer takes us down into the cells of petals, where cascades of carefully controlled reactions interlink to produce familiar colours and scents. The reds and blues we take for granted are revealed as the products of complex, seven-step syntheses, while the scents of blossoms sometimes turn out to have hundreds of components.
Explaining all this is a difficult task because it means exploring both intricate gene regulation and the mysteries of multi-step chemical synthesis. Because these are unfamiliar worlds for the non-specialist, Singer needs to choose her words and imagery with great precision. She almost succeeds, but somehow lacks the verve and dexterity to make the text truly fly. Pages that should give context and depth are full of paragraphs that almost lead somewhere, but lack a final line or two to cap them off and make them relevant or highly memorable.
The book is also somewhat unevenly edited, such that early chapters serve smart 13-year-olds while later ones will challenge an adult generalist. And, an odd criticism, Blossoms would have been better longer with room for details about how the discoveries were made and who made them. Singer does say explicitly that she is going to forbear from that – but I think that was the wrong call.
Despite these cavils, a great strength of the book is Singer’s emphasis on the contingent nature of evolution, how it uses what is to hand, keeping it as long as it works. Overall, this is a good first attempt to convey the complexity of spring’s best secret, and one from which another, better, book can evolve.
Oxford University Press
This article appeared in print under the headline “Budding knowledge”
