Synopses & Reviews
"Once in a great while a popular scientific book opens a whole new field.
Plants, Man and Life is such a book."
The New York TimesWhat's the difference between wild and cultivated plants? Why has the study of cultivated plants been neglected, and why is so little known about the common plants that have endured since ancient times? This innovative ecological survey examines the long history of human and plant interactions.
Author Edgar Anderson, a distinguished botanist, analyzes suggestive pieces of evidence in a reader-friendly narrative that recounts the origins and evolution of plant life with all the intrigue of a good detective story. In tracing the development of human influence on plant life, Anderson focuses particularly on crops, which he reveals as having started out as weeds--hybrids that sprang up from the dump heaps and gardens of early humans. His investigation of the tangled and continuing history of weeds and cultivated plants ranges from autumnal European greens and the American sunflower to backyard landscapes in developing countries, where fruit trees, flowers, vines, and vegetables mingle with the sources for fibers, poisons, narcotics, and other drugs.
Synopsis
What’s the difference between wild and cultivated plants? Why has the study of cultivated plants been neglected, and why is so little known about the common plants? A distinguished botanist analyzes suggestive evidence in a reader-friendly narrative with all the panache of a good detective story.
Synopsis
A distinguished botanist examines the long history of human and plant interactions in this innovative ecological survey. His reader-friendly narrative recounts the tangled and continuing history of weeds and cultivated plants around the world, from garden-variety flowers and vegetables to sources for poisons and drugs. 16 black-and-white illustrations.