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Plants are found almost everywhere on Earth, but to many people their lives are a mystery. Discover the secrets of more than 100 amazing plants in this treasury of intriguing flora Learn how seagrass changes the environment around it, how the Venus flytrap counts to make sure it catches its prey, and why some tulips used to cost more than a house! This ebook explores the vast plant kingdom and explains how plants work, as well as the weird and wonderful relationships they have with animals. Plants provide us with food, fuel, and medicine, and without them, life as we know it would not exist. From orchids that grow vanilla pods to trees that cause headaches, and from bamboo that can be made into clothes to moss that soaks up vast amounts of carbon dioxide, plants shape our world in an endless variety of ways The Secret World of Plants covers the key plant groups; the essentials of plant science, including photosynthesis, pollination, and germination; and what they mean to the people around them. Each species is shown with remarkable photography and beautiful illustrations, all brought to life by Ben Hoare's writing, filled with charm and infectious enthusiasm. This ebook is a must for any child interested in the natural world and the plants that grow in it.

Evolution of land plant -- Plants and human culture -- Naming plants -- Classification and the angiosperm phylogeny group

From the author of The History of the World in 100 Animals, a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week, comes an inspirational new book that looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity, stunningly illustrated throughout. As humans, we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands. But we still consume the energy of the sun in the form of food. The sun is available for consumption because of plants. Plants make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis; nothing else in the world can do this. We eat plants, or we do so at second hand, by eating the eaters of plants. Plants give us food. Plants take in carbon dioxide and push out oxygen: they give us the air we breathe, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate. Plants also give us shelter, beauty, comfort, meaning, buildings, boats, containers, musical instruments, medicines and religious symbols. We use flowers for love, we use flowers for death. The fossils of plants power our industries and our transport. Across history we have used plants to store knowledge, to kill, to fuel wars, to change our state of consciousness, to indicate our status. The first gun was a plant, we got fire from plants, we have enslaved people for the sake of plants. We humans like to see ourselves as a species that has risen above the animal kingdom, doing what we will with the world. But we couldn’t live for a day without plants. Our past is all about plants, our present is all tied up with plants; and without plants there is no future. From the mighty oak to algae, from cotton to coca here are a hundred reasons why.

"Following on the successes of two previous dictionary projects, the CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names and the CRC World Dictionary of the Grasses, Umberto Quattrocchi has undertaken this dictionary of economically important plants.... He has done for these plants what was so admirably done in his other works—brought the vast and scattered literature on plant names, and in this case, too, their uses, into coherent order so that the inquisitive scholar can get a foothold." —From the Foreword, Donald H. Pfister, Harvard University and Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, Massachusetts The CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology provides the starting point for better access to data on plants used around the world in medicine, food, and cultural practices. The material found in the five volumes has been painstakingly gathered from papers of general interest, reports and records, taxonomic revisions, field studies, herbaria and herbarium collections, notes, monographs, pamphlets, botanical literature, and literature tout court. It includes sources available at various natural history libraries, floras and standard flora works, local floras and local histories, nomenclatural histories, and the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Much more than a dictionary, the book provides the names of thousands of genera and species of economically important plants, concise summaries of plant properties, and appropriate observations about medicinal uses. Drawing from a tremendous range of primary and secondary sources, it is an indispensable time-saving guide for all those involved with botany, herbal medicine, pharmacognosy, toxicology, medicinal and natural product chemistry, and agriculture.

Have You Ever Wondered About The Design Of Plants And Animals Around Us; Why A Fish Swims More Rapidly Than A Duck Can Paddle, Why Healthy Trees More Commonly Uproot Than Break, How A Shark Manages With Such A Filmsy Skeleton, Or How A Mouse Can Easily Survive A Fall Onto Any Surface From Any Height. This Entertaining And Informative Book Describes How Living Things Bump Up Against Nonbiological Reality; It Aims To Change How You View Your Immediate Surroundings. It Will Not Only Fascinate The General Reader But Will Also Serve As An Introductory Survey Of Biomechanics. Life S Devices Includes Examples From Every Major Group Of Animals And Plants, With References To Recent Work, With Illustrative Problems, And With Suggestions Of Experiments That Need Only Common Household Materials.

A spirited and incisive survey of economic geography, A World Made for Money begins with the author stopped at a red light in Norman, Oklahoma. Observing the landscape of drugstores and banks, and for that matter the stoplight and roads themselves, Bret Wallach observes, “Everything I see has been built to make money” or, at the very least, to facilitate making money. This, he argues, is a global phenomenon that nonetheless has occurred only within the past hundred years or so. Although guidebooks and culture brokers often disparage these landscapes of commerce, Wallach—recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant”—argues that we would do well to pay them close attention. A World Made for Money provides a compelling, condensed tour of our world. From Silicon Valley to Sri Lanka, from post-Soviet Russia to post-apartheid South Africa, Wallach looks at how human beings are buying, manufacturing, working, growing and shipping food, and accessing the natural resources to fuel it all. These essential facets of daily life, propelled by the profit motive, represent a transnational force shaping our surroundings and environment in ways that may not always be beautiful (or even healthy) but that are fundamental to understanding how the world works in the twenty-first century. Wallach examines the relationship between acquisitiveness and landscape, reveals surprising contradictions and nuances, and provides fresh perspective on politically charged topics such as sprawl, deindustrialization, and agribusiness.

Medicinal plants and plant-derived medicine are widely used in traditional cultures all over the world and they are becoming increasingly popular in modern society as natural alternatives to synthetic chemicals. As more and more natural remedies are being commercialised, there is a need for a user-friendly reference guide to the plants and their products. The book gives the reader a bird's eye view of more than 350 of the best known medicinal plants of the world and their uses, in a compact, colourful and scientifically accurate reference text. It provides quick answers to the most obvious questions: Where does this plant originate? What does it look like? In which culture is it traditionally used? What is it used for? Which chemical compounds does it contain? How safe is it? What is known about its pharmacological activity? What evidence is there that it is effective? The authors also provide short overviews of the various health conditions for which medicinal plants are used and the active compounds (secondary metabolites) found in the plants and their modes of actions. This new edition has an additional 30 plant species, many new and improved photographs and the text has been fully updated to reflect the latest regulatory status of each plant.