Plant Science

Explore the strange and remarkable stories of poisonous and even deadly plants. Science, history, and true crime converge in an informative and exciting look at Mother Nature's ghoulish garden. From a hallucinogenic fungus linked to the Salem Witch Trials to the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother, learn how certain plants evolved toxicity to avoid being consumed by predators and became the predator on their own.

Artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridle’s Ways of Being is a brilliant, searching exploration of different kinds of intelligence—plant, animal, human, artificial—and how they transform our understanding of humans’ place in the cosmos. What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans, or shared with other beings—beings of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon? The last few years have seen rapid advances in “artificial” intelligence.

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants by the U.S. Army is a must-have resource for anyone interested in survival, foraging, or outdoor exploration. This guide offers detailed descriptions, illustrations, and instructions to help readers identify edible plants across various environments while avoiding toxic species. Originally created for military survival training, the book covers a wide range of plants, from fruits and nuts to roots and greens, and provides guidance on how to harvest and prepare them safely.

Have you ever dreamed of turning a tiny seed into a delicious meal or a vibrant garden? Plant, Water, Grow! A Kid’s Guide to Gardening is the perfect guide for kids ready to embark on a fun and magical journey into the world of gardening. Whether you’re growing in a backyard, on a windowsill, or in a small pot indoors, this book makes it easy to grow your own fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Packed with simple instructions, hands-on activities, and colorful tips, this guide turns gardening into an adventure for every young grower. Learn how to pick the perfect spot, prepare the soil, ...

A prize-winning memoirist and nature writer turns to the lives of plants entangled in our human world to explore belonging, displacement, identity, and the truths of our shared future.

Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.

Desperate to join the expedition searching for her mother and the other missing Botanists, Daisy and her friends abandon the safety of magical Mallowmarsh. Facing danger on the high seas, they find themselves pursued across the waves by ruthless Grim Reapers. But they will need help to defeat these dangerous enemies. Their greatest hope: to find the legendary Iffenwild, a mysterious city hidden beyond the sea and lost to time. New discoveries await, and a strange botanical magic stirs beneath the waves.

A tree and your pet look nothing alike, but they have one thing in common—they are both made up of cells. Cells are really small. You can see them only with a microscope.

Merging ancient healing techniques and cutting-edge science, Drs. Johnson and Plant team up to reveal new groundbreaking science of essential oils, including synergistic actions with cells, genes, and human health. The discoveries revealed in this book will revolutionize the essential oil space, further unlock the unlimited benefits of essential oils, and increase the capacity of humans to live long and healthy lives to their fullest potential. You will discover: • Synergies between essential oils, cells, genes, carrier oils, and medications. • Blending tips to create synergistic ...

Looking at the trees around his house, Tristan Gooley realises how little he has noticed, or even really seen them. He decides to embark journey, to investigate the signs that can be read from trees and everything about them that we often overlook. Tristan takes the listener on a series on micro-expeditions to uncover the signs to look for in each tree. In each journey he highlights at least one exemplary sign or pattern; from the everyday to the more exotic, from Kew Gardens in London to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet's sentient species and prove that mammals are more than tools. Forced to land on a planet they aren't prepared for, human colonists rely on their limited resources to survive. The planet provides a lush but inexplicable landscape—trees offer edible, addictive fruit one day and poison the next, while the ruins of an alien race are found entwined in the roots of a strange plant. Conflicts between generations arise as they struggle to understand one another and grapple with an unknowable alien intellect.

The idea that plants have a mind of their own has been a prominent feature of some Indigenous narratives, literary works, and philosophical discourses. Recent scientific research in the field of plant cognition similarly highlights the capacity of botanical life to discern between options and learn from prior experiences or, in other words, to think. The Mind of Plants offers an accessible account of the idea of “the plant mind” by bringing together short essays and poems on plants and their interactions with humans.

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.

An accessible and compelling story of a scientist's discovery of plant communication and how it influenced her research and changed her life.

Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began to colonize the American continents, it became something else entirely - a cultural touchstone of pleasure and success and a coveted commodity that would transform the world economy forever.

Don’t miss your opportunity to become happier and healthier as you learn from nature, connect with other people, get back to your roots, become more self-sufficient, and stop worrying about running out of food. Once you set out on this path, you will never look back.

Whether you're a curious explorer, a seasoned psychonaut, or someone seeking alternative paths to personal growth, "How to Grow Psilocybin Mushrooms at Home" is your essential companion on the path to unlocking the mysteries of magic mushrooms.

Jennifer Jewell brings listeners on an insightful year-long journey exploring the outsize impact one of nature's smallest manifestations—the simple seed. She examines our skewed notions where "organic" seeds are grown and sourced, reveals how giant multinational agribusiness has refined and patented the genomes of seeds we rely on for staples like corn and soy, and highlights the efforts of activists working to regain legal access to heirloom seeds that were stolen from Indigenous peoples and people of color.

For Nick Gallows, time is everything, his most important resource as he tries to prevent the Apocalypse. Yet, time is also an enemy, a clock ticking down to the death of humanity—and faster than Nick knows. The clandestine Forebears of Ingenga snake their shadowy tendrils through every echelon of society in an effort to expedite the end, and after Nick foiled their plans once, their crosshairs have settled on him and his burgeoning guild.

Why does my cherry tree blossom but never fruit? What's the most effective slug deterrent? Could I breed my own unique variety of flower? The world of gardening can be a mystifying place, with so many instructions to follow and often little explanation as to why. From hands-on advice to an exploration of the mental health benefits of gardening, whilst also looking at sustainable practice and the positive impact gardening can have during a climate crisis, Science of Gardening debunks myths, and reveals the latest science only taught at horticultural college.