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wynter's review against another edition
4.0
Can I possibly need more research on the subject after reading Mabey's wonderful book? This is a comprehensive and very enjoyable work on various species of plants and their relationship with mankind. If you would like to learn which trees possessed mystical characteristics for our ancestors, and which were suspected of having wondrous medicinal properties, this is great place to start. If you need to check a phrase "floral gangbang" off your literary bucket list, look no further. Lovely book that pays tribute to nature in all its weird, creative, and shameless glory.
dancarey_404's review against another edition
4.0
Very entertaining mixture of scientific informaion and personal reminiscences. Manages not to spend too much time on some of the subjects of many pop-sci botany books (i.e., carnivorous plants). And what time Mabey does spend on those topics is presented through a cultural lens that makes the subject fresh.
[Audiobook note: Ralph Lister is an excellent reader.]
[Audiobook note: Ralph Lister is an excellent reader.]
amandar9fa2f's review
4.0
An entrancing, accessible and thought-provoking exploration of the plant world.
Each chapter focuses on a different species, growth habit, method of pollination, or habitat. Mabey touches on mythology, pre-history, literature, art, and the great plant hunters of the 18th and 19th centuries. While he makes passing reference to historical science in Newton’s apple, don’t expect plant science in anger.
In his theme of our relationship with plants, Mabey discusses the celebrity of trees, the Green Man, the cure-all Ginseng, Wordsworth, the hunt for the elusive Moonflower, as well as...
Over the course of the book, the chapters draw together as a paean to the diversity of plants. Together, they present 'the newly realised face of the once supposedly passive vegetable world.' Ultimately, this serves to underscore the interconnectedness and fragility of the ecosystem.
With prose that is as vivid as it is erudite, Mabey strikes a balance between engaging alike the layperson and the plant scientist: the hallmark of a great nature writer.
Each chapter focuses on a different species, growth habit, method of pollination, or habitat. Mabey touches on mythology, pre-history, literature, art, and the great plant hunters of the 18th and 19th centuries. While he makes passing reference to historical science in Newton’s apple, don’t expect plant science in anger.
In his theme of our relationship with plants, Mabey discusses the celebrity of trees, the Green Man, the cure-all Ginseng, Wordsworth, the hunt for the elusive Moonflower, as well as...
'passionflowers with their own pesticides, yew trees morphing their aerial roots into trunks, carnivorous species with the powers of muscled animals, orchids mimicking insect pheromones, arums able to raise their internal temperature.'
Over the course of the book, the chapters draw together as a paean to the diversity of plants. Together, they present 'the newly realised face of the once supposedly passive vegetable world.' Ultimately, this serves to underscore the interconnectedness and fragility of the ecosystem.
With prose that is as vivid as it is erudite, Mabey strikes a balance between engaging alike the layperson and the plant scientist: the hallmark of a great nature writer.
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