Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Plant Hunter  By  cover art

The Plant Hunter

By: Cassandra Leah Quave
Narrated by: Cassandra Leah Quave
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The uplifting, adventure-filled memoir of one groundbreaking scientist’s quest to develop new ways to fight illness and disease through the healing powers of plants.

“A fascinating and deeply personal journey.” —Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants and The Drunken Botanist

Traveling by canoe, ATV, mule, airboat, and on foot, Dr. Cassandra Quave has conducted field research everywhere from the flooded forests of the remote Amazon to the isolated mountaintops in Albania and Kosovo—all in search of natural compounds, long-known to traditional healers, that could help save us all from the looming crisis of untreatable superbugs. Dr. Quave is a leading medical ethnobotanist—someone who identifies and studies plants that may be able to treat antimicrobial resistance and other threatening illnesses—helping to provide clues for the next generation of advanced medicines. And as a person born with multiple congenital defects of her skeletal system, she's done it all with just one leg. In The Plant Hunter, Dr. Quave weaves together science, botany, and memoir to tell us the extraordinary story of her own journey.

©2021 Cassandra Leah Quave (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Cassandra Quave takes us on a fascinating and deeply personal journey to seek out modern medicines from the botanical world. As a scientist she is scrappy and tenacious, and as a writer she is eloquent and disarmingly honest. Fans of Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl will devour this engrossing narrative about Quave’s quest for the next cure.”­—Amy Stewart, bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist

“Quave’s fascinating story is full of insights with equal respect for traditional healing and ‘scientific’ medicine.”—Jonathan Drori, author of Around the World in 80 Plants

“This most remarkable book is overflowing with inspiration, delight and adventure, as Cassandra Quave brilliantly describes her search to understand nature’s healing power. Above all, Quave offers an intensely honest and personal story of a life filled with purpose, joy and challenges, which will no doubt influence a generation of young people seeking to serve the greater good, while reminding us all that we are inextricably connected to the Earth.”Michael J. Balick, Co-Author of Plants, People and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany

What listeners say about The Plant Hunter

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    39
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great science autobiography

Interesting re. plant biology ethnobotanist and persistence in the face of obstacles, even physical medical problems.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring

I loved how the book pulls one into the world of research and the brutal honesty of science.-funding and struggles to be taken seriously as an intelligent and capable woman. Wonderful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Deeply important, and very understandable

I couldn’t stop listening! This is such a well-written, engaging, and well-documented story about our need to understand, respect and search for the plants needed to address the infectious threats today and the very near future. It is a captivating, personal story describing our urgent needs and outlining a way to hope.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

i really enjoyed this book. It was interesting, educational and extremely written and very well narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

Well written, educational and inspiring. Not the usual dry ethnobotany writing I'm accustomed to. I love her story. This woman is an inspiration to all women.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Hardly any ethnobotany content

Mostly just a chest thumping memoir. The author sounds like a very impressive woman, but I was hoping for ethnobotany, not a self-congratulatory autobiography.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful