Plants Natural History

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.

Plants play a critical role in how we experience our environment. They create calming green spaces, provide oxygen for us to breathe, and nourish our senses. In The Nature of Plants, ecologist and nursery owner Craig Huegel demystifies the complex lives of plants and provides listeners with an extensive tour into their workings.

🌿 Aloe Vera: Nature’s Timeless Healer for Skin, Digestion & Everyday Wellness 🌿 For over 6,000 years, Aloe Vera has been cherished as the “plant of immortality.” From Cleopatra’s beauty rituals to Ayurvedic tonics and modern scientific validation, this humble green leaf has stood the test of time — soothing burns, calming digestion, nourishing hair, and restoring balance to the body. In Aloe Vera: The Essence of Healing, Rowan Hart invites you on a journey through history, tradition, and science to discover why Aloe remains one of the world’s most trusted natural remedies....

Entangled: A Cabinet of Botanical Wonders A Natural History of Medicinal Plants, Psychedelics, Poisonous Botanicals, and the Explorers Who Found Them Behind every empire's rise, beneath every garden wall, and within every seed lies a story of entanglement older than civilization itself. From the spice routes that reshaped continents to the flowers that bankrupted nations, plants have always been humanity's strangest partners and most patient teachers. Entangled explores this relationship through seven richly illustrated chapters spanning empires built on spices and stolen seeds, legendary ...

We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.

The Plant Hunter's Atlas is a volume telling some of the most extraordinary tales of horticultural discovery and exploring the characters behind the stories. Taking in the world's inhabited continents and spanning the centuries, the stories range from tales of derring-do in the age of discovery to modern-day botanists working at the cutting-edge of science. The text explores how plant hunters have been inspired by everything from scientific curiosity to economic greed, and their own ingrained sense of adventure. 

In this accessible, absorbing overview, Mancuso considers how plants convince animals to transport them around the world, and how some plants need particular animals to spread; how they have been able to grow in places so inaccessible and inhospitable as to remain isolated; how they resisted the atomic bomb and the Chernobyl disaster; how they are able to bring life to sterile islands; how they can travel through the ages, as they sail around the world.

In The Book of Cannabis, Jeremy Narby―renowned author of The Cosmic Serpent―delivers a sweeping, clear-eyed exploration of cannabis as both plant and cultural phenomenon. From its ancient medicinal and ritualistic roles to its vilification, Narby traces how cannabis became one of the most controversial plants in modern history.

In this audiobook you’ll learn all about Native American herbalism to improve your health, wellness, and vitality with indigenous healing practices, medicinal plants, natural herbs, and herbalist remedies.

How can a single tree help build cars, protect doctors, power industries, and change the way people move across the planet? The Amazing Rubber Tree: How One Plant Changed the World takes readers on a fascinating journey through science, history, and innovation—starting with a living tree in the rainforest and ending with the rubber products we use every day. Young readers will explore: How rubber trees grow and why they produce latex How people learned to tap trees without cutting them down The transformation of liquid latex into solid rubber Rubber’s role in transportation, medicine, ...

‘Based on meticulous research in original sources … Goodman illustrates vividly how adept [Banks] was … Shining a light on individuals whose achievements are relatively uncelebrated’ Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting –...

Before there even was modern era medications and its pharmacopoeia of artificial medications, there were medicinal plants. Prehistoric civilizations have widely used them for the strategic treatment of common illnesses as well as life-threatening ailments. More recently, the information about medicinal plants was handed over from one generation to the next.

Brought to you by Penguin. Set in the valley of the Mesta, one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe and a nexus for wild plant gatherers, Elixir is an unforgettable exploration of the deep connections between people, plants and place Over several seasons, Kassabova spends time with...

For most of 2020, Mikes Dilger’s day-job of travelling to the four corners of the British Isles all but disappeared. Having been confined to one place by the Covid pandemic, and with daily dog walks his sole permitted outdoor pursuit, the simple pleasure of getting to know the flowers at his feet reignited a long-buried botanical passion. Now Mike is on a mission: to see a thousand different wild plants in one calendar year, and assess how our fascinating flora is faring in modern Britain.

Oliver Sacks, the bestselling author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, is most famous for his studies of the human mind: insightful and beautifully characterized portraits of those experiencing complex neurological conditions. However, he has another scientific passion...

Lowinné, a young Aboriginal woman, eagerly anticipates uniting with Tughanah now that he has come of age. But the two lovers still have to be patient. For countless cycles, their respective clans have converged during their grand annual journey to Trowenna, the majestic land at the Earth's edge. During one such journey, Lowinné has an extraordinary encounter, compelling her to make a daring proposition to her father, the sage of the Nyu clan. This proposal risks shattering an age-old taboo. Has she genuinely received a divine message? Can her father grant her audacious request? Seeking ...

Oliver Sacks, the bestselling author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, is most famous for his studies of the human mind: insightful and beautifully characterized portraits of those experiencing complex neurological conditions. However, he has another scientific passion...