Plants have strength, knowledge, and intelligence that are worthy of admiration in and of themselves…not because they affirm the ways in which we animals have those qualities.
Beronda L. Montgomery
Dr. Beronda L. Montgomery uses “Lessons from Plants” to share plant-based knowledge and to develop and disseminate accessible lessons on the awareness and adaptability of plants. She has also recently initiated “Lessons from Microbes”.
Beronda frequently shares these using #LessonsFromPlants on her social media platforms, most frequently on Bluesky @BerondaM. Her first book Lessons From Plants was published in April 2021 by Harvard University Press. Her second book When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy is published in January 2026 by Henry Holt.
Select article-length publications and writings on #LessonsFromPlants:
#LessonsFromPlants on Faculty Devlopment
Three Sisters and Integrative Faculty Development (2017). Plant Science Bulletin, 63: 78-85
#LessonsFromPlants on Sense-Driven Seasonal Living
Plants as Teachers and Witnesses (2021). American Scientist, 109(1): 38
#LessonsFromPlants on Mentoring (and Leadership)
From Deficits to Possibilities: Mentoring Lessons from Plants on Cultivating Individual Growth through Environmental Assessment and Optimization (2018). Public Philosophy Journal, 1: 10.25335/M5/PPJ.1.1-3
Planting Equity: Using What We Know to Cultivate Growth as a Plant Biology Community (2020). Plant Cell, 32: 3372-3375
#LessonsFromMicrobes on Equity
Lessons from Microbes: What Can We Learn about Equity from Unculturable Bacteria? (2020). mSphere 5(5): e01046-20