The Science of Plants: Inside their secret world by Dorling Kindersley, 2022. Dorling Kindersley, published in association with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. I had a great sense of déjà vu (Stephanie Pappas) when looking...
Category - Books
Nigel Chaffey
When broomcorn millet swept along the Silk Road…
Fruit from the sands: The Silk Road origins of the food we eat by Robert N Spengler III, 2019. University of California Press. In the UK we are blessed with a wide variety and ready availability of fruits all year round...
Does the Garden of Eden contain magic medicine trees?
The Ethnobotany of Eden: Rethinking the Jungle Medicine Narrative by Robert Voeks 2018. University of Chicago Press. I suspect that most of us who’ve tried to impress upon others the importance of plants have at one...
Plants, Humans and War! A triangular affair.
Pichersky, E. (2018). Plants and Human Conflict. CRC Press,206p. At first glance, ‘Plants and Human Conflicts’ looks like a simple book, with a single banana crop on its cover. This 189-page book is written by Dr Eran...
S.Suresh Ramanan
Three kinds of algae? Blooming marvellous news!
Bloom: From food to fuel, the epic story of how algae can save our world by Ruth Kassinger 2019. Elliott & Thompson. As a Botanist, especially one who has taught an undergraduate module on marine biology for over 12...
Read all about it: Plants that get their own back on animals
Carnivorous Plants by Dan Torre 2019. Reaktion Books Ltd. In the same way that it’s become something of a tradition that books about seeds should contain – and prominently – that Henry David Thoreau ‘seed quote’ * (e.g...
Between scientists and journalists, the PIO
Handbook for Science Public Information Officers by W. Matthew Shipman, 2015. The University of Chicago Press. This book had been on my ‘to-read’ list for years, though it kept getting bumped down by other...
Alun Salt
Primroses and primulas aplenty
Primrose by Elizabeth Lawson, 2019. Reaktion Books Ltd. To the uninitiated, it may seem rather improbable that anybody can write 288 pages about the primrose. After all, whilst it may be understood that primrose is a...
Visually stunning: Flora for juvenile – and adult – fauna
Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants by DK [Dorling Kindersley] with contribution by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2018. Dorling Kindersley. Dorling Kindersley’s Flora: Inside the secret world of plants [hereafter...
From Emerald Planet to Eden with Prof. Beerling
Making Eden by David Beerling, 2019. Oxford University Press. Almost 12 years ago I reviewed David Beerling’s previous book The Emerald Planet. I was very impressed with that slim, but information-packed, volume; I’m...
Wood-wide web wins world-renowned writing award
The Overstory by Richard Powers, 2018. William Heinemann. As a would-be botanical educator who’s reviewed a lot of botany texts over the years, I don’t really have time to review – or just read – ‘novels’. But, having...
Teaching plant anatomy, via hangman?
Plant Anatomy: A Concept-Based Approach to the Structure of Seed Plants by Richard Crang, Sheila Lyons-Sobaski and Robert Wise, 2018. Springer. I suspect that anybody who’s ever taught – or studied – plant anatomy has...
A tropical botany delight
Atlas of Poetic Botany by Francis Hallé with Éliane Patriarca, translated by Erik Butler, 2018. The MIT Press. Let’s start this book appreciation with a multi-choice question. Is Francis Hallé’s new book Atlas of Poetic...
Bigging-up Bill’s botany
Mr Guilfoyle’s Shakespearian Botany, Edited by Diana E Hill and Edmée Cudmore, 2018. The Miegunyah Press. It is acknowledged that English wordsmith William Shakespeare (Bill…) was well-versed in matters botanical. Quite...
