Bizarre Botany

Description

Take a journey through a forest of fascinating facts and explore the wonders of the plant kingdom - from the tallest and smallest, to the smelliest and deadliest. This A to Z gift book reveals some of the most quirky and awe-inspiring stories about plants and will give you a whole new appreciation of all things floral. Did you know that the swamp cypress has breathing knees? Or that poison dart frogs raise their young in tank bromeliads high up in the rainforest canopy? That oak galls can be used as a source of ink, or that juniper wood once fuelled illicit whisky distilleries? Do you know what a vegetable sheep is, or which plants were used in the Egyptian art of embalming? We are surrounded by plants that live unusual and diverse lives, and we put them to some surprising uses. Bizarre Botany is packed with amazing facts that you'll want to share with everyone you know.

Christina Harrison is editor of Kew magazine and has degrees in Plant Ecology and Garden History. She is author of Kew's Big Trees, Flowers of Love and co-author of Treasured Trees, from Kew Publishing and Botanical Treasury from Chicago Press. Lauren Gardiner is a research fellow at Kew, who is currently specialising in the conservation of Madagascan plants and a member of the RHS Orchid Committee, and a number of other botanical and conservation organisations. Livi Mills is an artist and freelance illustrator based in London. She has exhibited at galleries including Hoxton Arches, Orleans House Gallery & The Art Pavilion.

Plants are awe-inspiring. Everyday we are surrounded by these fascinating, endlessly useful organisms, yet somehow manage to constantly overlook them. This book aims to change all that, opening our eyes to how amazing they truly are. Guaranteed to make a plant geek out of anyone. -- James Wong, ethnobotanist, author and TV presenter