The wealth of some of the 19th century powers can be traced to a piece of botanical equipment.
Tag - Plant Science
Nigel Chaffey
The who, when, where of global plant discovery
A fascinating book is hampered by its approach to citations.
Approaches for orchid conservation at the U.S. Botanic Garden
The United States Botanic Garden combines science and education to keep orchids safe in their collections and in the wild.
Benjamin Crain
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...
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...
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...
Plants that … CURE
Plants that cure: A natural history of the world’s most important medicinal plants* by Elizabeth A Dauncey and Melanie–Jayne R Howes, 2020. Kew Publishing. A few years ago Kew published a book about the deadly...
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...
