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...
Tag - Botany
Nigel Chaffey
This is a berry good book!
Berries by Victoria Dickenson 2020. Reaktion Books Ltd. Even though I’m a Botanist I’ve never had a great understanding of fruits and seeds. I am however, aware that the fruit botanically known as a berry has a very...
Mum’s the word* in new plant book
Chrysanthemum by Twigs Way 2020. Reaktion Books Ltd. Despite being a declared lover of plants, I didn’t include ‘mums’ – as chrysanthemums are commonly known – amongst the plants that I consider most interesting. It was...
Merlin’s magnificent mushroom masterpiece
A fascinating book examines fungi not as something apart from the rest of the world, but as something intertwined with other life on the planet.
A thread about ideas for Botany One plant stories…
Image: “Flower of Nelumbo nucifera, bean of India” by T Voekler. Inspiration for Botany One stories Several years ago I penned a piece giving some insights into the sources for my Plant Cuttings items that appear on the...
It’s time to boost botany: the science and the word itself
"Is it time to say farewell to Botany?" asked authors in a recent op-ed.
Erin Zimmerman
The crowning glory of Kew
Palace of Palms: Tropical dreams and the making of Kew by Kate Teltscher 2020. Picador. The UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew near London are famed as much for the buildings and grounds, as the ground-breaking, world...
Much more than juniper – the botany of gin
The Botany of Gin, by Chris Thorogood and Simon Hiscock 2020. Bodleian Library. As one who ‘appreciates’ a well-proportioned gin & tonic, and having previously read Just the Tonic by Kim Walker & Mark Nesbitt, I...
Your chance to give Botany a voice in a Fine Art project
The project aims to start making inferences about the importance of ecological features in historical art.
Alun Salt
Plant blindness eradicated *
Side-view of the human eye, viewed approximately 90 degrees temporal, illustrating how the iris and pupil appear rotated towards the viewer due to the optical properties of the cornea, by Paul Savage Plant blindness...
Do we need evidence in books about plants?
Without a source are facts really facts, or just factoids?
Can’t Botanists agree on common names..?
A rose by any other name... would be incorrectly described.
