This book provides an accessible taxonomic base for acanthaceae; rubiaceae; and sapindaceae of Sri Lankan vegetation. It forms a significant part of the vascular flora of the island.

Tropical Plants of Costa Rica is the essential guide to Costa Rica's native and exotic plant species. In this comprehensive volume, Willow Zuchowski introduces readers to an array of the country's dazzling and diverse flora-from rainforest giants over sixty meters in height to miniature orchids with petals that measure less than one millimeter in length. Covering almost 600 species from all of Costa Rica's regions, Tropical Plants of Costa Rica includes 820 photographs and 120 black-and-white illustrations to aid in the identification of these plants. Detailed species accounts offer descriptions of the plants as well as a rich trove of information about their natural history, distribution, conservation status, potential medicinal uses, and role in human societies. This second edition-in a more compact size for easier use in the field-adds more than 100 species along with a new section focusing on the Osa Peninsula, many new photographs, and updates on scientific names. The only book on the flora of the country intended for serious and casual plant enthusiasts alike, Tropical Plants of Costa Rica is an indispensable resource for the visitor, gardener, student, and researcher.

Imagine a garden that is as beautiful as it is productive, that gives you fresh, wholesome, chemical-free food with flavours that go way beyond anything the shops can offer. In Eat What You Grow, Alys shows you how to create a rich, biodiverse garden that feeds not only you, but supports a wide range of pollinators, bees and butterflies, as well as other wildlife. From perennial vegetables that come back year after year, to easy-to-grow delights, she has selected plants that hold their own in both the garden and on the plate. And tells you how to raise these plants, guiding you through the process of feeding your soil, saving seed and taking cuttings to increase your supplies. She also teaches you simple and effective design tools that will ensure your garden looks striking and wild, brings joy to your world and feeds you day after day.

Discover the wonders at the centre of our planet's ecosystem. In ten short and accessible essays, science and nature writer Carolyn Fry takes us on an awe-inspiring journey of the Earth's lungs. From what makes a plant a tree and the incredible impact of forests, to how trees are under attack and what we can do to save them, this book will enthral and inform on the monumental power of the humble tree. Trees: 10 things you should know is an essential introduction to why trees are so important, and why our lives depend on them!

"A literary work with a life all its own, and without exaggeration, it is a masterpiece. . . . Far from being a simple narrative, the book discusses the incredible contribution each tree makes to the planet, where and how to plant them, and what environment they are most complementary to."
---Monika Carless, "EcoFarm & Garden"

"In prose as rich as the forest itself, Diana Beresford-Kroeger sees trees for all their attributes---as providers of clean air, clean water, food, shelter, and beauty---and places them squarely at the center of a complex web of nature that is crucial to all species including man."
---Roger C. Dower, President, Forest Stewardship Council-United States

Nothing on earth compares to the Boreal forest to maintain life on this planet. The vast primeval forest stretches across the northern regions of the world, from northern Canada and Alaska to northern Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. Boreal species can be found in cooler temperate climates everywhere, including Michigan and other cool areas of the United States, and some outliers are even found in the tropics. The circumpolar runoff from the Boreal enriches the seas with nutrients in the spring. The evergreens of the Boreal act as a passive ground coolant. And the needles of the evergreens and the trichomal hairs of the deciduous trees comb the air free of harmful minute particulate pollution.

"Arboretum Borealis" does for the northern forests of the world what Arboretum America did for the forests of North America. Diana Beresford-Kroeger further describes how each Boreal tree group relates to its natural environment and how these specific trees can be used to promote health or to counteract the effects of pollution and global warming.

"Arboretum Borealis" reveals the fascinating history of these trees in Native American culture, including their medicinal uses. Finally, Beresford-Kroeger offers practical design ideas and tips---where to plant these trees, what season they look best in, and what native plants complement them.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist; medical and agricultural researcher; lecturer; and self-defined "renegade scientist" in the fields of classical botany, medical biochemistry, organic chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. She is the author of "Arboretum America" and lives in Ontario, Canada.

Cover image by Christian H. Kroeger

A traditional meadow full of wild flowers is a rare sight today but it is not too late to restore them and to create new ones. Charles Flower is passionate about restoring the countryside. After the appalling destruction of the 1970s and 1980s he pioneered practical methods of wild flower restoration on his own farm, where he grows wild flower seed crops and runs restoration workshops. We have been through many painful years of seeing our meadows destroyed but Charles Flower has proved that it is possible to plan for diversity, harvest seed, propagate it and create new meadows, woods, hedges and ponds so that wild flowers can be successfully re-established not only in the countryside but also in our gardens, thus ensuring a supply of nectar over a long period - from the woodland primrose in March through to fleabane in the wet meadow in September - that will entice back countless butterflies and other insects. This book is full of practical detail amassed by someone who has devoted all his energy to good management of the countryside for over twenty years. It recounts the story of how he has helped restore the flowers - and thus ensure the return of wildlife - to numerous gardens, farms and estates, a story documented by glorious photographs that cannot fail to inspire.

Let the art of nature and the magical kingdom of mushrooms inspire your own observations and writing with this beautiful set of linen-textured notebooks. GREAT SIZE TO TAKE ON THE GO: With a 6" x 8.5" size, these portable notebooks are perfect use at home, school, the office, or on the go. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNS: Each notebook includes sixty-four lined pages and features a different whimsical collage art design by artist Amy Ross.

"Fascinating...Buchmann's knowledge and enthusiasm jump off the page." --The Wall Street Journal "An extraordinarily good book." --Edward O. Wilson The lively and definitive story of the beauty, sexuality, lore, economics, and ecology of the world 's flowers, written by a devoted scientist and illustrated with his stunning photographs.Flowers--and the fruits they often become--feed, clothe, and inspire us. Indeed, they have done so for all of human history. Yet although we use flowers to celebrate important occasions, to express love, and to please our senses, we know little about them, their functions in nature, or even how we depend on them. In a volume that will delight gardeners, naturalists, cooks, artists, or anyone interested in history or culture, pollination ecologist Stephen Buchmann serves as an expert guide through the fascinating world of flowers. He explains how other species relate to flowers in ways crucial to the natural world. Next he takes us on an engaging exploration of the roles flowers play in the production of food, spices, medicines, and perfumes. Flowering plants, Buchmann then shows, have long served as inspirational themes in art and literature. Flowers have in fact so thoroughly seduced us that we now buy some ten million a day, driving breeders to create infinite varieties and unusual blooms. In this cultural and natural investigation of floral history, Stephen Buchmann's masterful narrative illuminates just why there is, indeed, a reason for flowers.

The narratives in My Forests are a pleasure to read; like strolling down a meandering track through the trees, you never quite know what you'll discover around that next bend.Travel the ancient Incense Road with the Biblical Magi. Enjoy the dancing Olive groves of Tuscany and read of 'sleeping' Silver Birches. Witness the spectacular tree houses of the Korowai of West Papua. Visit tree sitter Miranda Gibson, whose 449-day protest against clearfelling in Tasmania's Tyenna Valley led to a World Heritage listing.In this enlightening and entertaining book, Janine Burke invites you to accompany her through forests, art and writing, cities and parks, deserts and gardens, rainforests and wetlands, exploring the connections between trees and civilisations, past and present. My Forests: Travels with Trees presents the role of trees in contemporary life in a world where most people don't live in the wild, and their acquaintance with nature comes from many sources.

A Guardian Best Nature Book of the Year

The magic and mystery of the woods are embedded in culture, from ancient folklore to modern literature. They offer us refuge: a place to play, a place to think. They are the generous providers of timber and energy. They let us dream of other ways of living. Yet we now face a future where taking a walk in the woods is consigned to the tales we tell our children.

Immersing himself in the beauty of woodland Britain, Peter Fiennes explores our long relationship with the woods and the sad and violent story of how so many have been lost. Just as we need them, our woods need us too. But who, if anyone, is looking out for them?

What kind of tree is that? Whether you're hiking in the woods or simply sitting in your backyard, from Maine to New York you'll never be without an answer to that question, thanks to this handy companion to the trees of the Northeast. Featuring detailed information and illustrations covering each phase of a tree's lifecycle, this indispensable guidebook explains how to identify trees by their bark alone-no more need to wait for leaf season. Chapters on the structure and ecology of tree bark, descriptions of bark appearance, an easy-to-use identification key, and supplemental information on non-bark characteristics-all enhanced by more than 450 photographs, illustrations, and maps-will show you how to distinguish the textures, shapes, and colors of bark to recognize various tree species, and also understand why these traits evolved. Whether you're a professional naturalist or a parent leading a family hike, this new edition of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast is your essential guide to the region's 67 native and naturalized tree species.

A delightful illustrated treasury of botanical facts and fancy Florapedia is an eclectic A-Z compendium of botanical lore. With more than 100 enticing entries-on topics ranging from achlorophyllous plants that use a fungus as an intermediary to obtain nutrients from other plants to zygomorphic flowers that admit only the most select pollinators-this collection is a captivating journey into the realm of botany. Writing in her incomparably engaging style, Carol Gracie discusses remarkable plants from around the globe, botanical art and artists, early botanical explorers, ethnobotanical uses of plants, botanical classification and terminology, the role of plants in history, and more. She shares illuminating facts about van Gogh's sunflowers and reveals how a hallucinogenic weed left its enduring mark on the early history of the Jamestown colony. Gracie describes the travels of John and William Bartram-father and son botanists and explorers who roamed widely in early America in search of plants-and delves into the miniature ecosystems entangled in Spanish moss. The book's convenient size allows for it to be tucked into a pocket or bag, making it the perfect companion on your own travels. With charming drawings by Amy Jean Porter, Florapedia is the ideal gift book for the plant enthusiast in your life and a rare pleasure for anyone interested in botanical art, history, medicine, or exploration. Features a real cloth cover with an elaborate foil-stamped design

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience. Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest. Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity. In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.

Visitors to these islands in search of sun and sea are often surprised by theglorious wild flowers, abundant particularly in the spring and late autumn.Many are curious to know more about them.This book offers a means of identification on three levels.For the complete beginner there are illustrations of most of the more strikingwild plants (and of a few cultivated ones).For those who wish to go further, there is help in the form of a botanical key (abasic skill for would-be botanists, and what better place, than a sunny holidayisland to learn it in).For those who already have this skill here is a key to all the wild floweringplants ( except those waiting to be discovered - what a challenge for aninteresting holiday!).

Discover the life of trees through science, folklore, history and art – every day of the year. Immerse yourself in the world of trees with A Tree A Day – packed with tree facts and richly illustrated throughout with photographs and art. Nature writer Amy-Jane Beer takes us on a tour around the world’s woodlands to tell the stories of a variety of trees, from mysterious ginkos to historical oaks. Anyone who has sat in the dappled shade of a mighty oak or wandered in the blaze of a deciduous woodland in autumn cannot fail to appreciate the wonder of our trees and forests. Each of the 366 entries in this beautiful book – one for every day of the year – reveals some of the fascinating science, natural history or folklore of our great and gracious green neighbours, the history made beneath their branches, or the creativity they inspire. From the awesome Californian redwoods, titans of the tree world, to tiny but exquisite bonsai, and from the fantastically irritable sentinel willow of Harry Potter fame to the Japanese springtime tradition of hanami (blossom viewing) – this captivating collection showcases remarkable individuals and explores some of the ways trees support life on Earth as we know it. Celebrating one of the longest-living lifeforms on earth, A Tree A Day is forest bathing in book form and a wonder for nature lovers and tree enthusiasts alike.

Nineteenth-century English nature was a place of experimentation, exoticism, and transgression, as site and emblem of the global exchanges of the British Empire. Popular attitudes toward the transplantation of exotic species-botanical and human-to Victorian greenhouses and cities found anxious expression in a number of fanciful genre texts, including mysteries, science fiction, and horror stories. Situated in a mid-Victorian moment of frenetic plant collecting from the far reaches of the British empire, Novel Cultivations recognizes plants as vital and sentient subjects that serve-often more so than people-as actors and narrative engines in the nineteenth-century novel. Conceptions of native and natural were decoupled by the revelation that nature was globally sourced, a disruption displayed in the plots of gardens as in those of novels. Elizabeth Chang examines here the agency asserted by plants with shrewd readings of a range of fictional works, from monstrous rhododendrons in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Mexican prickly pears in Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm, to Algernon Blackwood's hair-raising ""The Man Whom the Trees Loved"" and other obscure ecogothic tales. This provocative contribution to ecocriticism shows plants as buttonholes between fiction and reality, registering changes of form and content in both realms.

This guide to common and unique plants found in forests of the Southeast thoroughly covers 330 species of forbs (herbaceous plants), grasses, vines, and shrubs, with a special emphasis on the plants' role in wildlife sustenance. Packed with detailed color photographs, the book is a must-have for forest landowners, game and wildlife managers, biologists, outdoors enthusiasts, students - anyone with an interest in the intricate and often unexpected interrelationships between the flora and fauna of our region's forests.

If there was ever a time to make the most of American hemp, our newest cash crop, the time is now. The blueprint is here; you're reading it.-Governor Jesse Ventura December of 2018 marked a largely unprecedented victory for cannabis. The 2018 Farm Bill passed and with it hemp became legal. What the federal government listed for decades as a schedule 1 narcotic was finally classified as an agricultural crop, giving great promise to the rise of a new American hemp industry. Filled with catchall research, American Hemp examines what this new domestic crop can be used for, what makes it a superior product, and what made it illegal in the first place; the book also delves into the many health and medical benefits of the plant. Hobbs weighs in on how hemp can improve existing industries, from farming to energy to 3D printing, plus how it can make a serious impact on climate change by removing toxins from the soil and by decreasing our dependence on plastics and fossil fuels. The table of contents includes: CHAPTER 1: How to Identify Hemp CHAPTER 2: History of Hemp CHAPTER 3: Hemp as a Wartime Crop CHAPTER 4: The Return of American Hemp CHAPTER 5: Hemp Disrupts American Farming CHAPTER 6: Hemp Health and Nutrition CHAPTER 7: Hemp-CBD: A Super Medication CHAPTER 8: Hemp Cures Poisoned Land CHAPTER 9: The EPA Is Not Your Friend CHAPTER 10: Clean Up with Hemp CHAPTER 11: Building with Hemp CHAPTER 12: Our Future with Hemp American Hemp lays out where we are as a nation on expanding this entirely new (yet ancient) domestic industry while optimistically reasoning that by sowing hemp, we can grow a better future and save the planet in the process.

'Somerville knows more about wooden barn construction than almost anyone alive.'-The Telegraph 'A joyful reminder of why nature, being outside, being together and creating beauty is so good for the soul.'-Kate Humble, broadcaster and author of A Year of Living Simply 'For all our advances, it's hard to deny the modern world brings with it new ills of disconnection and disenfranchisement, but here in Barn Club they've found their cure.'-Barn the Spoon, master craftsman and author of Spon Nature meets traditional craft in this celebration of the elm tree, beautiful buildings and community spirit. Barn Club calls on us to discover our landscapes more intimately and to explore the joys of making beautiful things by hand, together. When renowned craftsman Robert Somerville moved to Hertfordshire, he discovered an unexpected landscape rich with wildlife and elm trees. Nestled within London's commuter belt, this wooded farmland inspired Somerville, a lifelong woodworker, to revive the ancient tradition of hand-raising barns. Barn Club follows the building of Carley Barn over the course of one year. Volunteers from all walks of life joined Barn Club, inspired to learn this ancient skill of building elm barns by hand, at its own quiet pace and in the company of others, while using timber from the local woods. The tale of the elm tree in its landscape is central to Barn Club. Its natural history, historic importance and remarkable survival make for a fascinating story. This is a tale of forgotten trees, a local landscape and an ancient craft. This book includes sixteen pages of colour photographs, and black and white line drawings of techniques and traditional timber frame barns feature throughout.