Taming fruit: How orchards have transformed the land, offered sanctuary, and inspired creativity, by Bernd Brunner, 2021. Greystone Books Ltd. One might tame lions, or dogs, or other animals, but, does one really tame...
Category - Reviews
Nigel Chaffey
Welcome to the wonderful world of … weeds(!)
Plants despised today still have value, and this book explores their contribution to the British ecosystem.
A book about trees and fungi, what’s not to like?*
Fungi and trees: Their complex relationships, by Lynne Boddy, 2021. Arboricultural Association. Arbor is the borrowed-from-Latin word for a tree. You’d therefore expect a book from the UK’s Arboricultural Association to...
Dr Ward and the case of the globe-trotting plants…
The wealth of some of the 19th century powers can be traced to a piece of botanical equipment.
The who, when, where of global plant discovery
A fascinating book is hampered by its approach to citations.
The mighty ash, tree of materials, mythology and medicine
Ash by Edward Parker 2021. Reaktion Books Ltd Spoiler Alert! (and Summary?) Edward Parker’s Ash [which book is here appraised] is a title in Reaktion Books’ Botanical series. Having read any of my previous views on...
Celebrating Botany’s 400th birthday!
Roots to seeds: 400 years of Oxford botany by Stephen A Harris 2021. Bodleian Library Botanic gardens are important resources, both for plants and people. For example they have a major role in helping humanity manage...
A new edition of an iconic ethnobotany text
Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany, 2nd edition by Michael J Balick and Paul Alan Cox 2021. CRC Press Some books have an iconic status in their field. Take, for example, Balick and Cox’s 1996/7...
Plants’ plan preserves people and planet
The Nation of Plants, by Stefano Mancuso 2021. Other Press. Who’s in charge of the Earth? Aside from religioso-spiritual responses to this question, the mantle of this awesome responsibility appears to be have been...
Plant parables for the 21st Century
A lifestyle guide where plants take the lead instead of sitting in the background.
Gardening, but not just for bumblebees
A book that promises information about gardening for bumblebees delivers much more.
Alun Salt
Glorious global gambol through the plants
Around the World in 80 Plants by Jonathan Drori 2021. Laurence King Publishing Ltd. In my review of Jonathan Drori’s Around the World in 80 Trees [‘80 Trees’], I suggested there were many more tree species worthy of...
In celebration of plants
In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants by Matt Candeias 2021. Mango Publishing. Having read a lot of books from a plants-and-people perspective lately, I’d forgotten the sheer joy of reading...
Cereal thriller brings home the bacon*
Amber Waves: The extraordinary biography of wheat, from wild grass to world megacrop by Catherine Zabinski 2020. The University of Chicago Press. Biographies are usually written about people. However, Catherine...
