Trees, wildflowers and plants: general interest Books
Workman Publishing 50 Hikes with Kids Oregon and Washington
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2018 National Outdoor Book Award Handcrafted for Northwest caregivers that want to spark a love of nature, 50 Hikes with Kids highlights the most kid-friendly hikes in Oregon and Washington. These hikes are perfect for little legs—they are all under four miles and have an elevation gain of 900 feet of less. Some are even accessible by stroller. Every entry includes the essential details: easy-to-read, trustworthy directions; a detailed map; hike length and elevation gain; bathroom access; and where to grab a bite to eat nearby. Full-color photographs highlight the fun things to see along the trail.
£16.14
Timber Press (OR) 50 Hikes with Kids California
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£18.99
Workman Publishing Wildflowers of the Midwest
Book SynopsisIdeal for birders, hikers, and foragers, Timber Press Field Guides are the perfect tools for loving where you live.Wildflowers of the Midwest is a comprehensive field guide for anyone wishing to learn about the amazingly diverse wildflowers of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. This must-have book describes and illustrates 1000 commonly encountered species, including perennials, annuals, and shrubs, both native and nonnative. With more than 1,000 superb color photographs and a user-friendly organization by flower color and shape, this is a must-have guide for birders, hikers, foragers, and natural history buffs.
£23.75
Workman Publishing Southwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest,
Book SynopsisWildcraft your way to wellness! In Southwest Medicinal Plants, John Slattery is your trusted guide to finding, identifying, harvesting, and using 112 of the region’s most powerful wild plants. You’ll learn how to safely and ethically forage, and how to use wild plants in herbal medicines including teas, tinctures, and salves. Plant profiles include clear, color photographs, identification tips, medicinal uses and herbal preparations, and harvesting suggestions. Lists of what to forage for each season makes the guide useful year-round. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers, naturalists, and herbalists in Arizona, southern California, southern Colorado, southern Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, western and central Texas, and southern Utah.
£22.50
University Press of Colorado Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope, Fourth Edition A
Book SynopsisColorado Flora: Eastern Slope describes the remarkable flora of the state, distinctive in its altitudinal range, numerous microhabitats, and ancient and rare plants. Together with Colorado Flora: Western Slope, Fourth Edition, these volumes are designed to educate local amateurs and professionals in the recognition of vascular plant species and encourage informed stewardship of our biological heritage. These thoroughly revised and updated editions reflect current taxonomic knowledge. The authors describe botanical features of this unparalleled biohistorical region and its mountain ranges, basins, and plains and discuss plant geography, giving detailed notes on habitat, ecology, and range. The keys recount interesting anecdotes and introductions for each plant family. The book is rounded out with historical background of botanical work in the state, suggested readings, glossary, index to scientific and common names, references, and hundreds of illustrations. The books also contain a new contribution from Donald R. Farrar and Steve J. Popovich on moonworts. The fourth editions of Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope and Colorado Flora: Western Slope are ideal for both student and scientist and essential for readers interested in Colorado's plant life.
£999.99
Ten Speed Press Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive
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£28.50
Rodale Incorporated Seedtime: On the History, Husbandry, Politics and
Book SynopsisScott Chaskey—working farmer, poet, and spiritual father of the community farming movement—considers "the web of biodiversity and resilience at the heart of our cultural inheritance" by masterfully weaving history, politics, botany, literature, mythology, and memoir into a beautiful and instructive book.It's hard to think of a subject more fundamental to the sustenance of the human race than seeds. Having coevolved with the Earth's plants, insects, and animals, seeds are entwined with the core myths of ancient cultures and the development of human consciousness. Their story remains vitally important today, as the corporations that manufacture GMOs threaten our food security and the future of seed-cultivated agriculture.The stakes, for those concerned with preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity, are high. Balancing a wide view of politics and history, Chaskey alights from life on the farm he has cultivated for 25 years to conjure Gregor Mendel's breeding experiments that yielded our modern understanding of genetics; he also introduces us to several "bioneers," such as the geobotanist Nikolay Vavilov and agriculturalist Cary Fowler, who are preserving global biodiversity through seeds. Integrating scholarship with accessible storytelling, Seedtime is a celebration as well as a call to action urging us to renew our role as citizens of nature, in ecologist Aldo Leopold's phrase, not as conquerors of it.Trade Review“Brilliant book, highly important and beautifully written” —SOUTH SHORE PRESS“The book is a beautiful and poetic exploration of the history, husbandry, and promise of seeds. It is a celebration of the very essence of the cycles of nature...It is a book that you want to hold and read with time so as to savor the depth and richness of the words.” —PRETTY MEDICINE (Maria Bowling)
£17.99
Shambhala Publications Inc Family Foraging: A Fun Guide to Gathering and
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£15.26
Michigan State University Press Northern White-Cedar: The Tree of Life
Book SynopsisIf trees had personalities, the northern white-cedar would be an introvert. It is unassuming, tending to be small in stature with narrow crowns. It is patient, growing slowly beneath the canopy of larger trees. It is fragile, with weak wood prone to decay when living. But just as people have hidden depths, so too does the northern white-cedar. It is persistent, growing quickly to take advantage of canopy openings when they occur. It is tenacious, living for centuries or even a millennium. It is resilient, thriving even with a high proportion of rotten wood, and resourceful, finding places to live where other trees don’t prosper. It is constantly reinventing itself with branches that grow roots when resting on the moist ground. And people have long valued the tree. Native Americans used its lightweight, rot-resistant wood to make woven bags, floor coverings, arrow shafts, and canoe ribs. They extracted medicine from the leaves and bark to treat a variety of illnesses. A Haudenosaunee decoction of northern white-cedar is credited with saving the French explorer Jacques Cartier’s crew from scurvy, and the French dubbed it l’arbre de vie: the tree of life. This tree similarly gives life to many creatures in North American forests, while providing fence posts, log homes, and shingles to people. But the northern white-cedar’s future is uncertain. Here scientists Gerald L. Storm and Laura S. Kenefic describe the threats to this modest yet essential member of its ecosystem and call on all of us to unite to help it to thrive.
£999.99
Chicago Review Press Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants
Book SynopsisAn array of abundant wild foods is available to hikers, campers, foragers, or anyone interested in living closer to the earth. Written by a leading expert on wild foods and a well-known teacher of survival skills, Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants is more than a listing of plant types—it teaches how to recognize edible plants and where to find them, their medicinal and nutritional properties, and their growing cycles. This new edition features more than 70 plants found all around the United States along with more than 100 full color photos plus handy leaf, fruit, and seed keys to help readers identify the plants. It also includes fascinating folklore about plants, personal anecdotes about trips and meals, and simple and tasty recipes.Trade Review"If you're lost in the woods, the book could save your life; if you're interested in plant life and botany, the book is fascinating reading." -- Booklist"Unlike so many books on herbs and wild foods that simply repeat information the author read elsewhere, this guide is thoroughly tested and full of firsthand experience. It's also packed with the kind of information that makes identifying food plants fun." -- Los Angeles Times"I would not want to depend on feeding myself without this excellent book as a guide." --GreenConduct"Well written and easily understood, this title will make a great addition where outdoor activities are popular." -- Library Journal"Pick it up and you will be off on a wild currant and gooseberry chase, amazing your friends with the knowledge that gooseberries have thorns while currants do not, that both make good trail snacks and that currant shoots make ideal arrow shafts...There is something supremely life-affirming about reading this book. It makes you want to give the heave-ho to the petty, pointless consumerism that so infects us. Its straightforward prose is an antidote to irony and political cant." -- Pasadena Star News" Guide To Wild Foods and Useful Plants has quickly become my favorite book and one which I carry with me when ... well ... whenever I leave the house. While I may not always harvest plants for food, this handy field guide gives me a new appreciation for the plants I encounter... Guide To Wild Foods and Useful Plants is really a "must have" for anyone who wants to live closer to the earth." --Reduce Footprints"Nyerges' book was originally intended as a survival guide. But it offers more than that. By identifying plants that may have no name, place or purpose in today's society and revealing a world of history, uses and lore, the book wisely and matter-of-factly encourages a deeper relationship with nature. The message is also empowering." --Civil Eats"Thoughtfully written and thoroughly tested, Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants is the most authoritative and comprehensive book on foraging for nature's provisions and preserving our ancient relationship with the Earth itself." -- Backwoodsman Magazine
£19.76
Experiment How Light Makes Life: The Hidden Wonders and
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£11.39
Experiment Mushrooming: An Illustrated Guide to the
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£18.99
Earth Sky + Water Common Wildflowers of the Northeast
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£9.95
Earth Sky + Water Common Wildflowers of the Mid-Atlantic
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£999.99
Earth Sky + Water Common Wildflowers of the Midwest
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£9.95
Earth Sky + Water Common Mushrooms of the Midwest
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£999.99
Blue Star Press Field Notes from a Fungi Forager
Book SynopsisThis gorgeously illustrated compendium is a love letter to mushrooms—and to the Pacific Northwest.From evergreen forests shrouded in mist to the urban backyards of Seattle, mushrooms are everywhere in the Pacific Northwest if you know how to look.Here, forager-chef and forest therapy guide Ashley Rodriguez provides an evocative and personal survey of 50 of the most fantastic mushrooms to be found in the region. This book includes the famous Morchella (morel) and Cantharellus (chanterelle) as well as lesser-known species, like the blueish purple Clitocybe nuda (wood blewit) which smells like frozen orange juice, and Hydnellum peckii (Bleeding tooth fungus), which oozes brilliant red droplets that are widely used as a natural dye. Through the lens of these humble fungi, the interconnectedness of all living things comes into focus.Here you’ll find: An introduction to mushrooms in the Northwest landscape. Best practices for mushroom foraging and appreciation. 50 mushroom profiles, includes information about each mushroom’s appearance (plus scientific illustrations of each species), what distinguishes them from other species, how they have been used throughout different cultures and lore, and personal field notes from the forest floor. The most prized edible species are paired with mouthwatering sidebars about ways to use that mushroom in the kitchen. Infused with a forager-chef's love of edible mushrooms as well as the reverence of an eco-spiritual guide, this fully illustrated book is as much a treat to read as is to look at.
£15.82
Other Press LLC The Incredible Journey of Plants
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£15.29
Other Press LLC The Incredible Journey of Plants
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£19.99
Bloomsbury Publishing The Tulip: Twentieth Anniversary Edition
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£48.00
Workman Publishing Southeast Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest,
Book SynopsisWildcraft Your Way to Wellness In Southeast Medicinal Plants, herbalist CoreyPine Shane is your trusted guide to finding, identifying, harvesting, and using 106 of the region’s most powerful wild plants. Readers will learn how to safely and ethically forage, and how to use wild plants in herbal medicines, including teas, tinctures, and salves. Plant profiles include clear, color photographs, identification tips, medicinal uses and herbal preparations, and harvesting suggestions. Lists of what to forage for each season makes the guide useful year-round. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers, naturalists, and herbalists in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
£23.75
Workman Publishing Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, Revised
Book SynopsisIn Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, Steve Trudell describes and illustrates 493 species of the most conspicuous, distinctive, and ecologically important mushrooms found in Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia, Idaho, and western Montana. With helpful identification keys and photographs and a clear, color-coded layout, Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest is ideal for hikers, foragers, and natural history buffs and is the perfect tool for loving where you live.
£22.50
Timber Press (OR) Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest For Kids
£15.29
Timber Press (OR) Flora
£28.00
HarperCollins Focus Foraging: An Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild
Book SynopsisThis beautiful hardcover is your guide to year-round foraging across North America.Learn the benefits of edible plants and discover lush habitats across the continent with over 100 plant profiles. Each profile includes invaluable information about the plant's habitats and properties to ensure you can properly identify your bounty. With identification and harvesting tips plus medicinal suggestions, you'll become an expert in foraging safety and learn how to avoid deadly look-alikes.With Foraging, you will discover: Where to find edible plants How and when to harvest each plant Which parts to use and how to prepare them Tips for eating and preserving Take a walk through the forest, explore your own backyard, and find new wild places. From plants to berries, mushrooms, and nuts, you will become a confident forager with Foraging.
£14.11
HarperCollins Focus The Book of Invasive Species: 100 Plants,
Book SynopsisThis beautifully illustrated book is your guide to the invasive species found across North America.Invasive flora and fauna adversely affect our ecosystems. Some species are introduced purposefully and can be harmless or even beneficial to other native species, but others can cause great ecological and environmental harm. This book features 100 invasive plants, animals, and microbes found across North America. Learn the identifying characteristics of each species, their habitats, their impacts on each ecosystem, and why they have been able to proliferate.This book includes: Wild boars that devour crops and native vegetation Burmese pythons that annihilate native mammal populations Starlings that destroy crops Asian carp that out-compete native fish for habitat and food Nutria that damage natural resources And more! Discover the careful balance of ecosystems with The Book of Invasive Species.
£13.83
University of Nevada Press A Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National
Book SynopsisA Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National Recreation Area is the definitive book for weekend explorers and botanists alike who venture into LMNRA ready to discover the many wonders of the local flora. The authors highlight 183 plants that hikers are most likely to encounter along popular trails, washes, and surrounding hot springs, helping the area's millions of annual visitors identify and enjoy these common plants. This guide includes photos and descriptions of each plant, along with a map of LMNRA.The authors also provide a primer on plant ecology, including a guide to plant structures, desert adaptations and life forms, plant-to-plant interactions, and plant-animal interactions. Plants are grouped by life forms, such as tree, shrub, cactus, or grass, and by flower color within the wildflower section. The guide will encourage readers to pause and look carefully at each plant they encounter, giving them an enriched experience during their exploration.Trade Review"The authors are eminently qualified to offer this guidebook, and their knowledge about the plants of LMNRA emerges throughout its pages."—James M. André, director of the University of California's Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center, author of Floras of the Mojave National Preserve and Owens Valley"Powell, Landau, and Walker have written a concise book that will be useful to millions of annual visitors to the LMNRA."—David Charlet, professor of biology at the College of Southern Nevada, author of Atlas of Nevada Conifers: A Phytogeographic ReferenceTable of Contents Cover Page Title page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface Lake Mead National Recreation Area Plant Ecology Plant Communities Life Forms Organizational Notes Trees Desert Willow Western Honey Mesquite Smoketree Turbinella Oak (Shrub Live Oak) Singleleaf Pinyon Pine Tree Tobacco Athel Shrubs White Bursage (Burrobush) Woolly Bursage Seepwillow (Mulefat) Parish's Goldeneye Sweetbush (Chuckwalla's Delight) Virgin River Brittlebush Sticky Snakeweed Pygmy Cedar Paperflower (Paper-Daisy) Spiny Goldenbush Four-Wing Saltbush Shadscale Winterfat Torrey Ephedra Sand Croton Spiny Senna Pima Rhatany Desert Sage Thurber's Sandpaper Plant Globemallow (Desert Mallow) Desert Almond Desert Rue (Turpentine Broom) Saltcedar Creosotebush Cacti Teddybear Cholla (Jumping Cholla)Silver Cholla (Golden Cholla) Hedgehog Cactus Devil Cholla (Parish's Club-Cholla) Fishhook Cactus Pygmy Barrel Cactus (Johnson's Bee-Hive Cactus) Yuccas Beargrass (Bigelow's Nolina) Mojave Yucca Sedges and Grasses California Sawgrass (Twig Rush) Red Brome Fluffgrass Sixweeks Fescue (Sixweeks Grass) Common Reed Mediterranean Grass Southern Cattail Aquatic Plants Spiny Naiad (Holly-Leaved Water-Nymph) Wildflowers - White/Cream Woolly Bluestar (Small-Leaved Amsonia) Pebble Pincushion White Woolly Daisy (Woolly Sunflower) Rock Daisy (Emory's Rock Daisy) Odora (Slender Poreleaf) Nevada Cryptantha Winged-Nut Cryptantha Flattened Combseed (Wide-Toothed Pectocarya) White-Margined Spurge (Rattlesnake Weed) Smallseed Sandmat Rock Nettle Dune Primrose (Birdcage Oenothera) White Desert Gold Yerba Mansa (Lizard Tail) Sacred Datura (Jimson Weed) Sunray Woolly Daisy (Wallace's Woolly Daisy) Desert Dandelion Nevada Goldenrod (Showy Goldenrod) Fiddleneck (Desert Fiddleneck) Sahara Mustard Prince's Plume Desert Birdfoot Trefoil (Deervetch) White-Stemmed Blazing Star (White-Stemmed Stick-Leaf) Las Vegas Bearpoppy (Bearpaw Poppy) Little Gold Poppy Little Desert Trumpet Trailing Milkweed Spanish Needles Wire Lettuce Tumbleweed (Russian thistle) Filaree (Cranesbill, Redstem Filaree) Weakstem Mariposa Sand Verbena Giant Four O'Clock Palmer's Penstemon (Beardtongue) Rock Gili Notchleaf Phacelia (Scorpionweed) Yellowthroats (Fremont's Phacelia) Palmer's Phacelia Desert Larkspur (Mojave Larkspur) Honeysweet Peppergrass Woolly Plantain Spiny Herb (Devil's Spineflower) Desert Mistletoe Flower Color Cross-Reference Guide Leaf Shapes Leaf Arrangements Flowers Inflorescence Types Glossary Suggested Reading Index >About the Authors
£999.99
Mountaineers Books Mushroom Logbook
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£10.95
University of Arkansas Press An Arkansas Florilegium: The Atlas of Botanist
Book SynopsisAn Arkansas Florilegium is a late-flowering extension of the work initiated sixty years ago with University of Arkansas botanist Edwin B. Smith’s first entries in his pioneering Atlas and Annotated List of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas. Soon after this seminal survey of the state’s flora was published in 1978, Kent Bonar, a Missouri-born Thoreau acolyte employed as a naturalist by the Arkansas Park Service, began lugging the volume along on hikes through the woods surrounding his Newton County home, entering hundreds upon hundreds of meticulous illustrations into Smith’s work.Thirty-five years later, with Smith retired and Bonar long gone from the park service but still drawing, Bonar’s weathered and battered copy of the atlas was seized by a diverse cadre of amateur admirers motivated by fears of its damage or loss. Their fears were certainly justified; after all, the pages were now jammed to the margins with some 3,500 drawings, and the volume had already survived one accidental dunking in an Ozark stream.An Arkansas Florilegium brings Smith’s and Bonar’s knowledge and lifelong diligence to the world in this unique mix of art, science, and Arkansas saga.
£999.99
Walter Lemke Department of Journalism The Favored Strawberry
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£999.99
WW Norton & Co A Naturalist's Book of Wildflowers: Celebrating
Book SynopsisIn this exquisitely detailed naturalist’s handbook, Laura C. Martin provides profiles of 85 wild plants and flowers found across North America, each accompanied by lovingly illustrated and charming watercolor paintings. With dozens of notes, arrows, and details, each chapter encourages the reader to look at the plants as a naturalist would—opening up a whole new way of seeing nature. Martin gives details on where the plants can be found, how they grow, how to identify them, and what natural properties they each have. The handbook features plants from across North America, including the Purple Coneflower, found along the East Coast from Quebec to Florida, and the Opuntia (prickly pear) cacti found in Mexico and America’s Southwest. In addition to the wildflower profiles, readers will find information on growing native plants, instructions for plant crafts, tips for conservation, and ideas for activities with children. They’ll also discover recipes for teas, herb mixes, tinctures, and salves using the plants described. Crafts and activities include making dyes, simple baskets, wreaths, and crowns. A Naturalist’s Book of Wildflowers is a gift book and field guide in one, with its treasure trove of handy information and beautiful colored drawings.
£17.09
WW Norton & Co Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager's Guide to
Book SynopsisForaging for mushrooms is a meditative and rewarding escape. Even if readers aren’t ready to head out into the woods, this enchanting visual guide is a welcome introduction to 25 easily identifiable species, organized by location and use. Author Jess Starwood has led hundreds of foraging trips, sharing her knowledge of nature with students. This, her first book, is a celebration of fungi—perfect for both beginner and longtime mushroom admirers. No matter their use, all mushrooms have specific characteristics that are easy to recognize with the right teacher. Under Starwood’s guidance, readers will learn to identify caps, stipes, gills, and pores. They’ll encounter species such as Reishi, Lion’s Mane, Candy Cap, Chanterelle, and more; learn the best harvesting seasons; and enjoy delicious recipes using culinary favorites. But, above all, this guide will have readers growing their connection to nature and dreaming of the wonderful world of fungi.
£19.99
Rockridge Press Beginner's Guide to Safely Foraging for Wild
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£12.34
Rockridge Press Succulent Obsession: A Complete Guide
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£26.09
Lincoln Town Press Wild Edible Plants of California: Volume 1: The
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£9.95
Lincoln Town Press Wild Edible Plants of Texas
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£9.45
Thames & Hudson Nature Style
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£21.25
Thames & Hudson Secrets from the Flower Farm
£29.23
Penguin Random House South Africa Succulent Flora of Southern Africa
Book Synopsis"Succulent Flora of Southern Africa", first published in 1981, has long served as an authoritative guide for academics and lay enthusiasts alike. This long-awaited third edition takes into account intervening taxonomic advances and the discovery and naming of ever more species. All information has been fully revised, updated and supplemented in line with the latest thinking, and the book has been newly designed for clarity and ease of reference. Given the phenomenal extent and variety of our region's succulent flora, this revised version is a timely addition to the botanical literature of southern Africa.
£21.50
Nimbus Publishing (CN) Eating Wild in Eastern Canada: A Guide to
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£20.66
Lone Pine Publishing The Path to Wild Food: Edible Plants & Recipes
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£18.99
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) A Forager's Life: A tender and spellbinding debut
Book SynopsisA memoir about belonging and motherhood, told through the author's lifelong passion for wild food When Helen Lehndorf moves to the city after a childhood living off the land in rural Taranaki, she can't help but feel different from her peers and professors. She finds solace in long walks foraging weeds and plants along the river, but something inside her still longs for home. Chasing a feeling of ancestral belonging, she travels to England with her new husband. There they learn about nature as the commons, shared between all who encounter it - a source of delight, food, medicine.An unexpected pregnancy in Aotearoa changes everything, and motherhood takes over Helen's identity. When her son is diagnosed with autism, foraging becomes a space for selfhood in a chaotic world.Weaving memoir with foraging recipes, principles and practices, A Forager's Life is an intimate story and a promise that, with the right frame of mind, much can be made of the world around us.'Wonderful. A story that will have you looking at your neighbourhood with new intent.' Wendyl Nissen'Fascinating and really beautiful ... I loved this book.' Claire Mabey, 'Book Critic', RNZ Afternoons'A gorgeous book. Thoughtful, funny and inspiring.' Catherine Robertson, 'Book Critic', RNZ Afternoons 'I devoured the pages ... and found myself wanting more.' Kete Books'... her accounts of these struggles, and how she and her family worked through them, provide the books with much of its - considerably large - heart.' North & South'This heartfelt, dreamy memoir ... revels in the simple things [and] encourages you to slow down.' Shepherdess
£21.84
Reaktion Books Willow
Book SynopsisHaunters of waterways and guardians of hedgerows; jewels of the garden and common companions in the fields: willows are at once the most poetic and practical of plants. For millennia they have played a key role in cultures across the northern hemisphere, forming baskets, furniture, fences and walls; treating illnesses; and becoming objects of artistic celebration in Monet's paintings and Shakespeare's tragedies. The genus Salix is now increasingly used for soil stabilization and biofuel, highlighting willows' continued importance in the present day. Willow tells the rich tale of this many-sided plant, exploring its presence in literature, art and human history. Linked with life and death, grief and joy, toil and play, necessity and ornament, the willow has, in different times and places, functioned as a mirror of and participant in almost every facet of human existence. Although willows have been put to manifold practical uses, Alison Syme argues powerfully that we must also heed their poetic lessons: willows have much to teach us about living, dying and loving, hybridizing and enriching our world and protecting the environment. This well-illustrated book leads us from Monet's willows to Tang poetry, and from uses in medicine to environmental protection, in a seamless account of the special place this tree holds in world culture. Willow will appeal to anyone interested in gardens, the environment or the cultural history of plants.
£26.42
Reaktion Books Poppy
Book SynopsisThe poppy is the classic cornfield plant. Throughout history it has been one of the most successful of all agricultural weeds. Its brilliant colour has made it one of our best-known plants - it is beloved of artists and poets, though often hated by farmers. But its origins are obscure; it seems entirely confined to agricultural and marginal land, wherever it is found. Where was it before the inception of agriculture? And how is it that it is almost unique in its colour among the flowers of northern Europe?In Poppy Andrew Lack explores all aspects of one of our most familiar but declining flowers, combining history and biology with symbolic associations and connections with the arts. He describes why the poppy is so intimately associated with war and remembrance, and tells remarkable stories about the different varieties: the opium poppy, one of the oldest of narcotics, has had a profound influence on human history; the term 'tall poppy syndrome' is now used to describe envy of the success of a peer; and in many countries the poppy has come to symbolize weddings or death. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Poppy will appeal to the many admirers of this most colourful and striking plant.
£999.99
Reaktion Books Palm
Book SynopsisThe extraordinary palm: diverse, prolific, essential, symbolic and often sacred, exotic - and at times erotic - exploited and controversial. The signature plant of the tropics and subtropics, these record-breaking botanicals produce the world's biggest and heaviest seed, the longest leaf and the longest stem. Over thousands of years, palms sustained rainforest communities and were bound up with the development of ancient civilizations. They gained mystical and religious meanings and became a plant of abstractions and fantasies, a symbol of being at leisure, away from civilization and closer to nature - and at times of danger and devastation. In the nineteenth century capitalism used palm products to lubricate industry and cleanse empires. Iconic palm houses put on show this exceptional vegetative performer. Far from its natural homelands, it nowadays clothes and glamorizes an astonishing diversity of landscapes. Today oils from palms are consumed daily by millions of people worldwide. The plant is embedded in modern consumer societies, but mired in environmental controversy over the destruction of rainforests. In Palm Fred Gray portrays the cultural and historical significance of this iconic and controversial plant over thousands of years. Superbly illustrated, this lively and engaging book is the first of its kind.
£999.99
Reaktion Books Sunflowers
Book SynopsisSunflowers are the most recognizable members of the world's largest family of plants, Asteraceae, which includes lettuce, chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and weeds. The sunflower family is found in almost all habitats, from the driest deserts through grasslands and the tallest mountains to urban wastelands, and includes more than 32,000 species. The family has become a part of our literary and visual cultures, inspiring artists such as Vincent van Gogh, and is used by advertisers to promote countless products. It produces hugely popular and economically valuable ornamental flowers, as well as familiar flavourings such as tarragon and artemisia, and sunflowers are also used in the production of antimalarial drugs, artificial sweeteners, insecticides and fish poisons. Sunflowers unravels the interplay between the biology of sunflowers and human cultures over the last 6,000 years. It explores our fascination with the family and how our uses of the plants have changed over millennia. Illustrated with many rarely seen images of the sunflower family, this beautiful volume will appeal to those looking for a new, surprising perspective on familiar flowers.
£999.99
Reaktion Books Monsters under Glass: A Cultural History of Hothouse Flowers from 1850 to the Present
Book SynopsisMonsters under Glass explores our enduring fascination with hothouses and exotic blooms, from their rise in ancient times, through the Victorian vogue for plant collecting, to the present day. Our interest in hothouses can be traced back to the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it was in the early nineteenth century that a boom in exotic plant collecting and new glasshouse technologies stimulated the imagination of novelists, poets and artists, and the hothouse entered the creative language in a highly charged way. Decadent writers in England and on the Continent - including Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde - transformed the notion of the hothouse from a functional object to a powerful metaphor, of metropolitan life, sexuality and being, replete with a dark underside of decay and death; of consciousness itself, nurtured and dissected under glass. In this beautifully illustrated, wide-ranging and vivid study, Jane Desmarais charts the history and influence of these humid, tropical worlds and their creations, providing a steamy window on our recent past.
£999.99
Laurence King Publishing Tree Vision: 30 Cards to Cure Your Tree Blindness
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£14.99
