Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest by
The potential benefits of wild plants for human health and well-being are wide-ranging. But, knowing which plants to use, and how, for edible and medicinal purposes requires a deep understanding of the characteristics and qualities of these species in the wild. Whether you are seeking an herbal remedy for a specific ailment or simply want to make the most of the natural bounty that surrounds us, you need look no further than this groundbreaking study. Collected here are insightful tips and detailed descriptions relating to the edibility and healing potential of 100 wild plants of the upper Midwest. Drawing on his own extensive experience as well as more than 1,000 scientific and ethnobotanical studies, author Matthew Alfs offers tips on foraging for and identifying the plants growing in the region's fields, meadows, and woods. He provides detailed lists of plants for specific physiological functions and offers instruction for processing the plants to maximize their edible and medicinal properties. Now in its third edition, the book includes full color photos, a glossary, and an extensive resource list to supplement the plant descriptions, making it the ultimate resource to the edible and medicinal aspects of wild plants of the upper Midwest.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by
An Instant New York Times Bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world. As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry's relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth--its abundance of sweet, juicy berries--to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, "Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency." As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is "a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world." The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that "hoarding won't save us, all flourishing is mutual." Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.
The Land in Our Bones: Plantcestral Herbalism and Healing Culture from Syria to the Sinai by
*Instant USA Today Best Seller* A profound and searching exploration of the herbs and land-based medicines of Lebanon and Cana'an-a vital invitation to re-member our roots and deepen relationship with the lands where we live in diaspora Tying cultural survival to earth-based knowledge, Lebanese ethnobotanist, sovereignty steward, and cultural worker Layla K. Feghali offers a layered history of the healing plants of Cana'an (the Levant) and the Crossroads ("Middle East") and asks into the ways we become free from the wounds of colonization and displacement. Feghali remaps Cana'an and its crossroads, exploring the complexities, systemic impacts, and yearnings of diaspora. She shows how ancestral healing practices connect land and kin-calling back and forth across geographies and generations and providing an embodied lifeline for regenerative healing and repair. Anchored in a praxis she calls Plantcestral Re-Membrance, Feghali asks how we find our way home amid displacement- How do we embody what binds us together while holding the ways we've been wrested apart? What does it mean to be of a place when extraction and empire destroy its geographies? What can we restore when we reach beyond what'sbeen lost and tend to what remains? How do we cultivate kinship with the lands where we live, especially when migration has led us to other colonized territories? Recounting vivid stories of people and places across Cana'an, Feghali shares lineages of folk healing and eco-cultural stewardship- those passed down by matriarchs; plants and practices of prenatal and postpartum care; mystical traditions for spiritual healing; earth-based practices for emotional wellness; plant tending for bioregional regeneration; medicinal plants and herbal protocols; cultural remedies and recipes; and more. The Land in Our Bones asks us to reclaim the integrity of our worlds, interrogating colonization and defying its "cultures of severance" through the guidance of land, lineage, and love. It is an urgent companion for our times, a beckoning call towards belonging, healing, and freedom through tending the land in your own bones.
Birds, Bats, and Blooms: the Coevolution of Vertebrate Pollinators and Their Plants by
Like gems flitting through the sky, hummingbirds attract our eye. But they are more than flash: they are critical pollinators in their ecosystems. Similarly in the darkness of night, nectar-feeding bats perform the same important ecological service as their colorful avian counterparts. Vertebrate pollinators like bats and birds are keystone species of the Sonoran Desert. Biologist Theodore H. Fleming uses these species--found in the desert around his home--to address two big questions dealing with the evolution of life on Earth: How did these animals evolve, and how did they coevolve with their food plants? A deeply thoughtful and researched dive into evolutionary history, Birds, Bats, and Blooms offers an engaging trip across evolutionary trajectories as it discusses nectar-feeding birds and bats and their coevolution as pollinators with flowering plants. The primary focus is on New World birds such as hummingbirds and their chiropteran counterparts (nectar-feeding bats in the family Phyllostomidae). It also discusses their Old World ecological counterparts, including sunbirds, honeyeaters, lorikeets, and nectar-feeding bats in the Pteropodidae family. Fleming also addresses the conservation status of these beautiful animals. Through engaging prose, Fleming pulls together the most recent research in evolutionary biology and pairs it with accounts of his personal interactions with bats and birds. His account includes fourteen color photographs taken by the author during his research trips around the world.
Brave the Wild River: the Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first. Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon's secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river's most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter's plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystem. Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West, at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.
Trees in Art by
In this lavishly illustrated book, Charles Watkins celebrates the myth and magic of arboreal art. Open its pages and enter the greeny groves of the classical world, from Daphne's metamorphosis into a laurel tree to the gardens of Pompeii. Shade yourself beneath the tree in sacred art, as represented in masterworks by Botticelli and Michelangelo. Exploring every leafy manifestation of tree art--from oaks as a symbol of nationhood and liberty across Europe, to the natural mystery and drama of forest interiors, the formal beauty of cultivated avenues, and representations of forestry over the ages--Trees in Art illuminates trees that are much more than mere plants. Taking in the fantastic and surreal arboreal art of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, William Blake, Arthur Rackham, and Salvador Dalí, as well as the work of contemporary artists like Giuseppe Penone and Ai Wei Wei, Trees in Art reveals the enduring practice, genius, and meaning behind how artists render trees. Drawing on exquisite artworks and Watkins's deep knowledge of the history and ecology of trees, the thematic chapters of Trees in Art take us on an enlightening journey through centuries of verdant, artistic engagement with a natural form that seems to mirror and allegorize the human path through life.
The Tallgrass Prairie by
More than a region on a map, North America's vast grasslands are an enduring place in the American heart. Unfolding along and beyond the Mississippi River, the tallgrass prairie has entranced and inspired its natives and newcomers as well as American artists and writers from Willa Cather to Mark Twain. The Tallgrass Prairie is a new introduction to the astonishing beauty and biodiversity of these iconic American spaces. Like a walking tour with a literate friend and expert, Cindy Crosby's Tallgrass Prairie prepares travelers and armchair travelers for an adventure in the tallgrass. Crosby's engaging gateway assumes no prior knowledge of tallgrass landscapes, and she acquaints readers with the native plants they'll discover there. She demystifies botanic plant names and offers engaging mnemonic tips for mastering Latin names with verve and confidence. Visitors to the prairie will learn to identify native plants using the five senses to discover what makes each plant unique or memorable. In the summer, for example, the unusual square stem of cup plant, Silphium perfoliatum, sets it apart from its neighbors. And its distinctive leaf cups water after the rain. A gifted raconteur, Crosby tells stories about how humankind has adopted the prairie as a grocery, an apothecary, and even as a shop for love charms. Rounding out this exceptional introduction are suggestions for experiencing the American prairie, including journaling techniques and sensory experiences, tips for preparing for a hike in tallgrass landscapes, ways to integrate native prairie plants into home landscapes (without upsetting the neighbors), and a wealth of resources for further exploration. An instant classic in the tradition of American naturalist writing, The Tallgrass Prairie will delight not only scholars and policy makers, but guests to tallgrass prairie preserves, outdoors enthusiasts and gardeners, and readers interested in American ecosystems and native plants.
Lab Girl by
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life--but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. "Does for botany what Oliver Sacks's essays did for neurology, what Stephen Jay Gould's writings did for paleontology." --The New York Times A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father's college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands." She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together.
A Garden of Marvels by
In the tradition of The Botany of Desire and Wicked Plants, a witty and engaging history of the first botanists interwoven with stories of today's extraordinary plants found in the garden and the lab. In Paradise Under Glass, Ruth Kassinger recounted with grace and humor her journey from brown thumb to green, sharing lessons she learned from building a home conservatory in the wake of a devastating personal crisis. In A Garden of Marvels, she extends the story. Frustrated by plants that fail to thrive, she sets out to understand the basics of botany in order to become a better gardener. She retraces the progress of the first botanists who banished myths and misunderstandings and discovered that flowers have sex, leaves eat air, roots choose their food, and hormones make morning glories climb fence posts. She also visits modern gardens, farms, and labs to discover the science behind extraordinary plants like one-ton pumpkins, a truly black petunia, a biofuel grass that grows twelve feet tall, and the world's only photosynthesizing animal. Transferring her insights to her own garden, she nurtures a "cocktail" tree that bears five kinds of fruit, cures a Buddha's Hand plant with beneficial fungi, and gets a tree to text her when it's thirsty. Intertwining personal anecdote, accessible science, and untold history, the ever-engaging author takes us on an eye-opening journey into her garden--and yours.
The Edible Front Yard by
"Front lawns, beware: The Germinatrix has you in her crosshairs! Ivette Soler is a welcome voice urging us to mow less and grow some food--in her uniquely fun, infectious yet informative way." --Garden Rant People everywhere are turning patches of soil into bountiful vegetable gardens, and each spring a new crop of beginners pick up trowels and plant seeds for the first time. They're planting tomatoes in raised beds, runner beans in small plots, and strawberries in containers. But there is one place that has, until now, been woefully neglected--the front yard. And there's good reason. The typical veggie garden, with its raised beds and plots, is not the most attractive type of garden, and favorite edible plants like tomatoes and cucumbers have a tendency to look a scraggily, even in their prime. But The Edible Front Yard isn't about the typical veggie garden, and author Ivette Soler is passionate about putting edibles up front and creating edible gardens with curb appeal. Soler offers step-by-step instructions for converting all or part of a lawn into an edible paradise; specific guidelines for selecting and planting the most attractive edible plants; and design advice and plans for the best placement and for combining edibles with ornamentals in pleasing ways. Inspiring and accessible, The Edible Front Yard is a one-stop resource for a front-and-center edible garden that is both beautiful and bountiful year-round.
The Complete Book of Vegetables by
Praise for Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit, by Matthew Biggs and others: "Solid gardening tips and tempting recipes ... enough to teach even experienced gardeners new tricks." -- American Reference Books Annual In this encyclopedic guide, master gardener Matthew Biggs shows home gardeners how to grow a broad range of vegetables, from the traditional and most popular to the unusual and rare. In addition, celebrated chef Jean-Christophe Novelli provides delicious recipes that use the abundant harvest. This all-in-one resource features: An illustrated A-to-Z directory with detailed notes on hundreds of varieties that is organized into 80 vegetable families Unusual, exotic and rare vegetables for the home garden Directory of disease-resistant vegetables Hundreds of color photographs Practical gardening tips, including information on planning, soil, fertility, watering, crop rotation, growing systems, propagation and weed and pest control Expert advice on garden cultivation and maintenance, harvesting and storing A history of vegetable growing The ornamental vegetable garden, micro-greens, mini vegetables and making vegetable dyes A comprehensive lists of suppliers and prize-winning vegetables The Complete Book of Vegetables is a comprehensive guide for home gardeners.
The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants by
THE BIZARRE AND INCREDIBLE WORLD OF PLANTS brings together the best of the following three books in one fascinating union of art and science, POLLEN: THE HIDDEN SEXUALITY OF FLOWERS; SEEDS: TIME CAPSULES OF LIFE; AND FRUIT: EDIBLE, INEDIBLE, INCREDIBLE. Each earned high praise that varied from "breathtaking" and "ravishing" to "enlightening" and "truly revelatory." Visual artist Rob Kesseler uses special light and scanning electron microscopy to create astonishing images of a variety of pollen, seeds and fruits. His razor-sharp cross-sections reveal intricate interiors, pods, pouches, keys, and other examples of botanical architecture and seed dispersal. Seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy and palynologist Madeline Harley deftly explain the botanical purposes for which the pollen, seeds and fruit are designed, how they fulfill their mission, and their role in preserving the biodiversity of our planet. Literary references and early botanical illustrations pepper the text. THE BIZARRE AND INCREDIBLE WORLD OF PLANTS is groundbreaking in its intimate examination of plant reproduction. It is an essential source and reference for artists, designers and photographers and will fascinate gardeners and readers interested in the natural world. AUTHOR: Wolfgang Stuppy is a seed morphologist for the Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Rob Kesseler is a visual arts professor and artist who works with microscopic plant material at London's Royal Botanic Gardens. Madeline Harley, PhD, FLS, is head of the palynology unit at the Royal Botanic Gardens. ILLUSTRATIONS: Colour photographs
Flowers by
As an art student in 1993, Michael De Feo drew a simple bloom that became a familiar and welcome presence in New York after he spent countless nights pasting hundreds of versions of it all over the city's building walls. Twenty-five years later, these flowers have been sighted in more than 60 international cities. His street works took a new direction in 2015 when a guerrilla art collective provided him access to the cases that protect bus-shelter ads, enabling him to launch a beautiful campaign of his blossoms on top of fashion ads. His art has taken many forms, including a substantial body of studio work inspired by Dutch 17th-century paintings and another series which married floral themes with Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian portraiture. De Feo's colorful and lively book reproduces more than 200 of his flower-inspired images and features commentary from a diverse group of people who have supported his often-clandestine work.
Wildflowers of North America by
The most comprehensive and authoritative guide to the wildflowers of North America, updated for the first time in decades to reflect the impact of climate change and the advancements in DNA studies that have radically altered the classification process. Whether preparing for a scenic hike or getting to know the flowers in the backyard, readers will come to rely on this work of remarkable breadth, depth, and elegance. This handsome volume, from the world's most trusted name in nature field guides, is the result of a collaboration among leading scientists, scholars, taxonomic and field experts, photo editors, and designers. An indispensable resource, it covers 853 species of wildflowers, with nearly 5,200 full-color photographs. For ease of use, the book includes a glossary, an index, and a ribbon marker, and is organized according to the latest Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV classification system. Each species features up to five vibrant photographs, to aid with identification, along with notes on range, season, flowers, stems, fruit, conservation status, and more. Introductory essays give in-depth explanations of each part of a wildflower, and discuss nomenclature, invasive species, and the impacts of our changing climate. Whether preparing for a scenic hike or getting to know the flowers in the backyard, readers will come to rely on this work of remarkable breadth, depth, and elegance. It is a must-have reference for the library of any nature lover, and is poised to become the number-one guide in the field.
Perennials for Midwestern Gardens by
Gardeners everywhere want to grow perennials. But with its hot, humid summers and often bitterly cold winters, the Midwest presents a formidably challenging climate. This book provides concise, experience-tested information about popular perennials-including herbs, ornamental grasses, and bulbs-that can be grown successfully throughout a wide range of the midwestern United States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin). From the unusual yellow-edged, mahogany-red, disk-shaped flowers of Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera) to the demure charm of blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium), beautifully illustrated descriptions also tantalize with perennials that deserve wider appreciation for their superb garden qualities. In all, more than 400 plants are recommended, grouped into 140 main descriptions arranged alphabetically by botanical name. Each entry gives the plant's common name and describes its flowers, leaves, habit, soil and sun or shade requirements, propagation, insect and disease problems, outstanding cultivars and similar species, recommendations on where to use it, and other plants that will complement it. An easy-to-use box at the beginning of each description summarizes key characteristics. Native midwesterner Anthony Kahtz holds a Ph.D. in horticulture from the University of Illinois. His plant selections are based on his many years of professional and personal experience and represent perennials noteworthy both for their ornamental features and for the ease with which they can be grown. This trustworthy guide will be an indispensable aid to gardeners in America's heartland who seek to make their time in the garden easier and more fun.
Banana: the Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by
Growing out of a Popular Science feature article, this work combines a pop-science journey around the globe with a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise that takes readers into the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes.
Potato: a History of the Propitious Esculent by
The potato—humble, lumpy, bland, familiar—is a decidedly unglamorous staple of the dinner table. Or is it? John Reader’s narrative on the role of the potato in world history suggests we may be underestimating this remarkable tuber. From domestication in Peru 8,000 years ago to its status today as the world’s fourth largest food crop, the potato has played a starring—or at least supporting—role in many chapters of human history. In this witty and engaging book, Reader opens our eyes to the power of the potato. Whether embraced as the solution to hunger or wielded as a weapon of exploitation, blamed for famine and death or recognized for spurring progress, the potato has often changed the course of human events. Reader focuses on sixteenth-century South America, where the indigenous potato enabled Spanish conquerors to feed thousands of conscripted native peop≤ eighteenth-century Europe, where the nutrition-packed potato brought about a population explosion; and today’s global world, where the potato is an essential food source but also the world’s most chemically-dependent crop. Where potatoes have been adopted as a staple food, social change has always followed. It may be “just” a humble vegetable, John Reader shows, yet the history of the potato has been anything but dull.
Van Gogh: Fields and Flowers by
The legend of Vincent van Gogh's tortured soul and tragic life has long fascinated art lovers, shaping the way we view and interpret his work. But Van Gogh, the artist and the man, was also profoundly inspired by the beauty of nature and produced some of the most vibrant depictions of the natural world ever put to canvas. Van Gogh Fields and Flowers offers a refreshing look at this side of the artist's life and work. This gorgeous book is filled with color reproductions of Van Gogh's vibrant paintings of trees, fields, bouquets, and, of course, his acclaimed irises and sunflowers. The selection of more than 40 works includes both popular and lesser-known pieces, from Fields with Poppies to Four Cut Sun-flowers, which are accompanied by extracts from the artist's letters and an accessible text by art historian Debra N. Mancoff. Readers will come away from this book with a richer understanding of the joy and pleasure that Van Gogh experienced in his life and expressed with his brush.
Plants for Desperate Times by
Famines and other serious food shortages have been one of the scourges faced by humanity for millennia. Plants for Desperate Times is an introduction to the diversity of plant foods that have saved millions of lives during lethal food shortages. While not a field guide, it addresses questions about what famine foods are and why they are important. The work highlights one hundred plants. Each entry includes the common and scientific names, botanical family, distribution, use as a famine food and other uses, and nutritional information. The species come from across the botanical kingdom, demonstrating the diversity of life-saving plants and the human ingenuity of making what might seem to be inedible plants edible. Unexpectedly, important famine foods include alternative uses of important crops as well as native plants. Beyond a study of famine foods, the authors share why keeping an inventory of plant foods of last resort is so important. They help to build an understanding of little-known and underappreciated foods that may have a greater role in provisioning humanity in the future. As much as we may hope that severe food scarcity will never occur again, history suggests otherwise, and Plants for Desperate Times provides invaluable documentation of these vital foods.
The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by
Fifty vignettes of remarkable people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees--written and charmingly illustrated by the New York Times bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist "I love everything Amy Stewart has ever created, but this book is my favorite yet. I'm giving this book to everyone I know. Because it, like its subject, is a gift."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love When Amy Stewart discovered a community of tree collectors, she expected to meet horticultural fanatics driven to plant every species of oak or maple. But she also discovered that the urge to collect trees springs from something deeper and more profound: a longing for community, a vision for the future, or a path to healing and reconciliation. In this slyly humorous, informative, often poignant volume, Stewart brings us captivating stories of people who spend their lives in pursuit of rare and wonderful trees and are transformed in the process. Vivian Keh has forged a connection to her Korean elders through her persimmon orchard. The former poet laureate W. S. Merwin planted a tree almost every day for more than three decades, until he had turned a barren estate into a palm sanctuary. And Joe Hamilton cultivates pines on land passed down to him by his once-enslaved great-grandfather, building a legacy for the future. Stewart populates this lively compendium with her own hand-drawn watercolor portraits of these extraordinary people and their trees, interspersed with side trips to investigate famous tree collections, arboreal glossaries, and even tips for "unauthorized" forestry. This book is a stunning tribute to a devoted group of nature lovers making their lives--and the world--more beautiful, one tree at a time.
This Is Your Mind on Plants by
The instant New York Times bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year "Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways." --New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants--and the equally powerful taboos. Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a "drug"? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs--opium, caffeine, and mescaline--and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings? In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively--as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.
Around the World in 80 Plants by
An inspirational and beautifully illustrated book that tells the stories of 80 plants from around the globe. In his follow-up to the bestselling Around the World in 80 Trees, Jonathan Drori takes another trip across the globe, bringing to life the science of plants by revealing how their worlds are intricately entwined with our own history, culture and folklore. From the seemingly familiar tomato and dandelion to the eerie mandrake and Spanish "moss" of Louisiana, each of these stories is full of surprises. Some have a troubling past, while others have ignited human creativity or enabled whole civilizations to flourish. With a colorful cast of characters all brought to life by illustrator Lucille Clerc, this is a botanical journey of beauty and brilliance. Praise for Around the World in 80 Trees "Beautiful to behold and to read" - THE SUNDAY TIMES "An arboreal odyssey" - NATURE "One of the most quietly beautiful books of the year" - DAILY MAIL "Jonathan Drori's deep-seated love of nature is contagious in this tree-by-tree journey across countries and continents. A book to take your time over" - WIRED "A brilliant blend of science, history, culture and folklore, this interesting and engaging book explores the relationship between people and trees as it circumnavigates the globe. The quietly passionate writing is informative, interesting and quite delightful. The hardback version, which I've got, is one of the best-produced books I've read in years: the formatting is crisp and inviting, the paper is heavy and of high quality, and almost every page includes color drawings by artist Lucille Clerc that are simply breathtaking. Together, these features make this book a joy to touch, to hold and to read." - FORBES
Flower Diary: in Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries, and Opens a Door by
Mary fought for a place as a professional artist without having to live as a tragic heroine. She married George Reid, Canadian muralist, and while their relationship was more equal than most, this was still the Edwardian age. How do you find time to paint when you need to get to the market to buy a chicken for dinner?