How to be a Bad Botanist

How to be a Bad Botanist PDF

Author: Simon Barnes

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-04-25

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1398518921

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Can you tell a tomato from a grape? Lawn from an oak tree? Then congratulations - you are a botanist. Self-confessed bad birdwatcher Simon Barnes thought he knew nothing about plants. He didn't object to them: trees are interesting, because birds perch in them; plants are useful as they create habitats and birds live in habitats. But while admiring the tenacity of some sea kale and yellow-horned poppy to thrive on an inhospitable shingle beach, he was struck by a truth - it all begins with plants. In this funny and inspiring book, Simon Barnes tells the story of a lifelong relationship with plants, and the realisation of the fact. Taking us from thinking ourselves ignorant about plants, to gently starting to observe seasons, patterns and places, Barnes guides us on a journey to better observing the beauty and diversity of the natural world. Both a primer on how to appreciate the plants around us and an exploration on how they make our external and interior worlds, How to be a Bad Botanist opens our eyes to the wonders around us. Plants are everywhere, in every part of your life, and you know more than you think.

The Big, Bad Book of Botany

The Big, Bad Book of Botany PDF

Author: Michael Largo

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-08-05

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 006228276X

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David Attenborough meets Lemony Snicket in The Big Bad Book of Botany, Michael Largo’s entertaining and enlightening one-of-a-kind compendium of the world’s most amazing and bizarre plants, their history, and their lore. The Big, Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild, wonderful, and weird plants. Some are so rare, they were once more valuable than gold. Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities, including the power to turn a person to stone. Others have been used by assassins to kill kings, and sorcerers to revive the dead. Here, too, is vegetation with astonishing properties to cure and heal, many of which have long since been lost with the advent of modern medicine. Organized alphabetically, The Big, Bad Book of Botany combines the latest in biological information with bizarre facts about the plant kingdom’s oddest members, including a species that is more poisonous than a cobra and a prehistoric plant that actually “walked.” Largo takes you through the history of vegetables and fruits and their astonishing agricultural evolution. Throughout, he reveals astonishing facts, from where the world’s first tree grew to whether plants are telepathic. Featuring more than 150 photographs and illustrations, The Big, Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating, fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons PDF

Author: Kate Khavari

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Published: 2022-06-07

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1639100083

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The Lost Apothecary meets Dead Dead Girls in this fast-paced, STEMinist adventure. Debut author Kate Khavari deftly entwines a pulse-pounding mystery with the struggles of a woman in a male-dominated field in 1923 London. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to blaze a new trail at the University College London, but with her colleagues’ beliefs about women’s academic inabilities and not so subtle hints that her deceased father’s reputation paved her way into the botany department, she feels stymied at every turn. When she attends a dinner party for the school, she expects to engage in conversations about the university's large expedition to the Amazon. What she doesn’t expect is for Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives, to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect and evidence quickly mounts. Joined by fellow researcher--and potential romantic interest--Alexander Ashton, Saffron uses her knowledge of botany as she explores steamy greenhouses, dark gardens, and deadly poisons to clear Maxwell's name. Will she be able to uncover the truth or will her investigation land her on the murderer’s list, in this entertaining examination of society’s expectations.