There are many recent works on the topic of light and plant growth. These have not only been written by experts, but are also, in the main, written for experts (or, at least, for those who already have a fair understanding of the subject). This book has its origins in a six-week course in plant photophysiology, and its aim is to provide an introduction to the subject at an advanced undergraduate level. The imagined audience is simply a student who has asked the questions: In what ways does light affect plant growth, and how does it do it? The book is limited to aspects of photomorphogenesis....

The study of plant development in recent years has often been concerned with the effects of the environment and the possible involvement of growth substances. The prevalent belief that plant growth substances are crucial to plant development has tended to obscure rather than to clarify the underlying cellular mechanisms of development. The aim in this book is to try to focus on what is currently known, and what needs to be known, in order to explain plant development in terms that allow further experimentation at the cellular and molecular levels. We need to know where and at what level in...