It is a first contact story in a way, though it’s the humans who are the aliens arriving on the planet.

Also, the speaker (“bamboo”) in the second quote may be a “plant”, but other than being RNA-based (like some simple life forms on Earth; the book/series assumes panspermia on a building blocks of life level), life on that planet isn’t in any way related to Earth life (well, except for the humans themselves once they arrive). The “bamboo” might mention “pines” in that excerpt, but both “bamboo” and “pines” are just what the humans would come to call those species opon their discovery, because they remind them of the respectively named plant species back on Earth.