Botany 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.

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds...

This stunning cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery offers up lessons from the natural world shared through the stories of long-lived trees. “[Melinda] Sewak’s inspiring narration, combined with her storytelling prowess and dedication to historical...

A sweeping and revelatory new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. ""THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY."" — Scientific American The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s...

Could a single seed build an empire? From the tea fields of China to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, Seeds of Empire reveals how the plants we cultivate have sown wealth, war, and wonder across the world. Across centuries and continents, humanity’s pursuit of flavor, fiber, and fuel has shaped the rise and fall of civilizations. Sugar fed slavery and rebellion; tea sparked revolution; cotton clothed nations and chained workers; coffee brewed enlightenment and empire. In vivid, cinematic prose, historian Theo Ashbridge traces the tangled roots of power, greed, and discovery through...

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist. “A sublime chronicle of our planet."" –Booklist, STARRED review Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering...

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 ...

The true adventures of David Fairchild, a turn-of-the-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes—and thousands more—to the American plate. “Fascinating.”—The New York Times Book Review “Fast-paced adventure...

A gripping, multifaceted true account of the deadliest animal of all time and the hunter on its trail, equally comparable to Jaws as to Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard. ""RIVETING."" —Scientific American ""THRILLING."" —Wall Street Journal ""GRIPPING."" —Nature Nepal, c. 1900: The...

“You'll root for these creatures and their survival. A marvelous narration.”—Booklist “Paleontologist Riley Black’s vivid writing and Wren Mack’s wonderstruck narration make these vignettes of prehistoric life on Earth fascinating listening.”—AudioFile Winner, A Friend of Darwin...

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Scientific American, and The Economist The riveting, untold true story of the botanists at the world’s first seed bank who made “the mad, heroic decision during the siege of Leningrad to guard biodiversity at the cost of human life” (The New...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK In Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In...

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest...

Roots of the Apothecary is a historically grounded exploration of humanity’s earliest healing traditions and the apothecaries who shaped them—long before modern pharmacies, laboratories, and commercial medicine existed. This book traces the evolution of apothecaries from ancient civilizations through medieval Europe and into the foundations of modern pharmacy, revealing how centuries of plant knowledge informed the development of contemporary medicine. Through calm, narrative-driven storytelling, readers discover how apothecaries understood plants, balance, preparation, and observation ...

An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America. "Gisela Chípe's sensitive performance combined with Katherine Vaz's artful prose offers a recipe for hours of enchanting listening...

Are humans unwitting partners in evolution with psychedelic plants? Darwin’s Pharmacy shows they are by weaving the evolutionary theory of sexual selection and the study of rhetoric together with the science and literature of psychedelic drugs. Long suppressed as components of the human tool kit, psychedelic plants can be usefully modeled as “eloquence adjuncts” that intensify a crucial component of sexual selection in humans: discourse.

Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? Or are they passive, incapable of independent action or social behavior? Philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions since ancient Greece, most often concluding that plants are unthinking and inert: they are too silent, too sedentary - just too different from us. Yet discoveries over the past 50 years have challenged these ideas, shedding new light on the extraordinary capabilities and complex interior lives of plants.  

What can hemp really do? In recent years, hemp has returned to the spotlight: a sustainable material, an industrial alternative, a resource of the future. But between enthusiasm and prejudice, it's difficult to distinguish reality from promises. This book offers a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of hemp, approaching it from multiple perspectives: The history and ancient uses of the plant The transformation from a widespread resource to an object of prohibition The effects on the body and traditional and ritual use Industrial production: cultivation, processing, supply chain Practical ...

From the best-selling author of Gratitude, On the Move, and Musicophilia, a collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks's passionate engagement with the most compelling and seminal ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience. Oliver Sacks, a...

In this wide-ranging and accessible new book, biologist-turned-perfumer Elise Vernon Pearlstine turns our human-centered perception of fragrance on its head and investigates plants' evolutionary reasons for creating aromatic molecules. Delving into themes of spirituality, wealth, power, addiction, royalty, fantasy, and more, Pearlstine uncovers the natural history of aromatic substances and their intersection with human culture and civilization.