Have you ever sat and watched a plant? The very idea itself might seem strange. We like to watch things that move, that do something. But in fact, plants are doing a great deal too - plants behave, as animals do - they are just doing it on a very different timescale. They cannot move about freely like animals do, so they grow into space instead and make new chemicals to interact with the species around them. Not only that, but what causes them to do these things, what drives this behaviour, is far more similar than we humans, with our speedy, animal-centric perceptions, have always assumed. If we learn to look differently, we might be amazed at what we find.

We are dismantling the traditional hierarchies of nature: we are becoming increasingly aware of the interior lives of other species and how much we share with them. We are also coming to understand that there are many more ways to be intelligent than we have previously believed. We can't see ourselves as the only, privileged intelligent life on Earth any more. And if we are to save the global biome, we must not.

PLANTA SAPIENS opens up the plant kingdom like never before and will transform how you view other forms of life, to see plants as allies in tackling global problems rather than as mere resources; as teachers from whom we can learn about our own minds.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger - a world-recognised botanist and medical biochemist - has revolutionised our understanding of the natural world with her startling insights into the hidden life of trees. In this riveting memoir, she uncovers the roots of her discoveries in her extraordinary childhood in Ireland. Soon after, her brilliant mind bloomed into an illustrious scientific career that melds the intricacies of the natural world with the truths of traditional Celtic wisdom. To Speak for the Trees uniquely blends the story of Beresford-Kroeger's incredible life and her outstanding achievement as a scientist. It elegantly shows us how forests can not only heal us as people but can also help save the planet. AUTHOR: Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a world-recognized botanist, medical biochemist, and author, whose work uniquely combines western scientific knowledge and the traditional concepts of the ancient world. Her books include The Sweetness of a Simple Life, The Global Forest, Arboretum Borealis, Arboretum America, Time Will Tell, and A Garden for Life. Currently she is advocating on behalf of an ambitious global bioplan that encourages ordinary people to develop a new relationship with nature and to restore the global forest.

'My favourite book of the year' - Kate Humble, Radio Times 'This is a book for literary connoisseurs, fact-lovers and environmentalists. In short, it is a book about trees and people, for everyone.' - BBC Countryfile 'Eclectic, brilliant and beautifully written, David Haskell reboots our aromatic memory reminding us of how our lives are intertwined with the wonder of trees. A treat not to be sneezed at.' - Sir Peter Crane, FRS 'Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree is a transportive olfactory journey through the forest that sets the sense tingling. Every chapter summons a new aroma: leaf litter and woodsmoke, pine resin and tannin, quinine and bay leaf - life in all its glorious complexity. David George Haskell is a knowledgeable, witty and erudite companion, who takes us by the hand and leads us through the world, reminding us to breathe it all in. This book is a breath of fresh air.' - Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree takes you on a journey to connect with trees through the sense most aligned to our emotions and memories. Thirteen essays are included that explore the evocative scents of trees, from the smell of a book just printed as you first open its pages, to the calming scent of Linden blossom, to the ingredients of a particularly good gin & tonic: In your hand: a highball glass, beaded with cool moisture. In your nose: the aromatic embodiment of globalized trade. The spikey, herbal odour of European juniper berries. A tang of lime juice from a tree descended from wild progenitors in the foothills of the Himalayas. Bitter quinine, from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, spritzed into your nostrils by the pop of sparkling tonic water. Take a sip, feel the aroma and taste three continents converge. Each essay also contains a practice the reader is invited to experience. For example, taking a tree inventory of your own home, appreciating just how many things around us came from trees. And if you've ever hugged a tree when no one was looking, try breathing in the scents of different trees that live near you, the smell of pine after the rain, the refreshing, mind-clearing scent of a eucalyptus leaf crushed in your hand. Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree also contains everyday practices the reader is invited to experience. For example, taking a tree inventory of your own home, appreciating just how many things around us came from trees. And if you've ever hugged a tree when no one was looking, try breathing in the scents of different trees that live near you, the smell of pine after the rain, the refreshing, mind-clearing scent of a eucalyptus leaf crushed in your hand.

A must-have for mushroom hunters in the northeast The Northeast is one of the best places to find mushrooms; they are both abundant and spectacularly diverse. Mushrooms of the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada is a compact, beautifully illustrated guide packed with descriptions and photographs of more than 500 of the region's most conspicuous, distinctive, and ecologically important mushrooms. Covers Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario, and most of Quebec More than 550 superb color photographs Helpful keys for identification Clear, color-coded layout An essential reference for mushroom enthusiasts, hikers, and naturalists

Following the incredible Botanicum, Katie Scott returns with a companion activity book. Bursting with fascinating facts and puzzles, this book offers hours of entertainment to artists and nature lovers. Beautiful and inspiring, the myriad activities in this book challenge the reader to discover something new and use their imagination to draw, decorate and design on every pull-out page.

Ecological Guide to the Mosses and Common Liverworts of the Northeast is an essential introduction to identifying mosses and common liverworts found in the northeastern United States and Canada. This richly illustrated guide, organized by substrate, offers readers with little prior experience or knowledge an intuitive, easy-to-use method for distinguishing over 250 species of bryophytes in the field. Sue Alix Williams teaches us how to narrow down species possibilities at a site by first paying attention to the particular substrate, such as a tree trunk or a river rock. Field and microscopic keys detail characteristics visible by the naked eye or through a microscope. Drawings of plant features placed side-by-side for quick comparison accompany photo galleries of species. With an illustrated overview of bryophyte terminology and tips for collecting specimens, Ecological Guide to the Mosses and Common Liverworts of the Northeast is an invaluable resource for outdoor enthusiasts looking to learn more about these marvelous plants.

"Some plants are inherently rare, while others become rare through our actions." Rare Plants explores what makes the world's most uncommon plants so exceptional, and by what means they have become so scarce. From highlands to jungles, many of our most extraordinary plants are vanishing at shocking rates, and this exquisitely illustrated book explores 40 of these mysterious species. Featuring stunning archive images and expert insight from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Rare Plants explores both the beauty and necessity of our endangered plant life.

There has never been a better time to plant a tree! From their invaluable role in fighting climate change and cleaning the air of our cities, to the huge mental health benefits being around their leafy presence can bring, trees are at the very centre of both our urban and rural ecosystems. Written by Ben Raskin, head of horticulture at the Soil Association, and supported by Friends of the Earth UK, this earthy call-to-action teaches the practical how-tos alongside the most interesting insights to appreciate about the significance of magnificent trees. As movements to rewild the world around us gain pace, tree planting is being recognised as an empowering, practical and surprisingly simple action that each and every one of us can do in our backyard, park, local community, school, town or city. Sections in this book include: Trees and the World - This sectioncelebrates just how vital trees are, from how they help regulate the climate and absorb dangerous methane and nitrous oxide, to how they enrich soil, support wildlife and keep our city air clean, as well as the threats they face from climate change. Growing Your Own Tree - Tips on growing saplings from seed, cuttings or grafting, plus guidance on care and maintenance, from weeding and mulching to when to prune and pollard. Forty Best Trees - A guide to the top40 of our favourite trees, appreciated for their fruit and nuts, their ornamental value and the role they play in supporting wildlife, including a neat introduction to how to recognise trees by their leaf shape, flowers, seeds and fruit. Trees and Happiness - Research has revealed that trees are effective at reducing stress levels and improving our mental well-being, and this section digs into exactly how this happens. Whether you're a keen gardener, an avid environmental activist or simply want to learn more about these beautiful and powerful organisms, this must-read book illustrated by popular screen-printerRosanna Morris sends the powerful message that we can plant a tree & retree the world!

Sappi tree spotting Highlands follows the simple Sappi tree spotting system of looking for the right tree in the right place - most trees in the Highlands are found in rocky areas, a ridge, or along a stretch of natural unspoilt river. Highlands successfully explores the wonder of trees and shrubs from the highlying grasslands and scrubby Karoo plains, to the Drakensberg and the Eastern Cape Mountain ranges. It includes some of the beautiful exotic species that are prolific in the Highlands.

'Inspirational' Cara Delevingne Whether you live in a house or flat, in a rural or urban environment, this beautiful book shows how to harness the natural world around us and feel more grounded and rooted in our surroundings. The Wild Journal is a beautifully illustrated guide from leading florist and nature writer Willow Crossley. Guiding you through creative practical projects and therapeutic seasonal reflections, The Wild Journal celebrates the potential of nature to mend, heal and transform our mood. The simple, back-to-basics habits and small seasonal changes in the book can help everyone to counteract the unpredictability and chaos of everyday life. Wherever you live, there are simple mindful actions - from listening to birdsong instead of rushing on your commute, to collecting natural treasures such as feathers, branches, pebbles or pine cones. Willow shares her creative techniques for bringing nature into your daily routine - whether it's planting and potting, identifying wild flowers, trying your hand at beautifully simple flower arrangements or making your own essential oils and candles. There is space to record reflections and your favourite seasonal activities, as well as ideas for star-gazing, bird-watching, and so much more. Willow Crossley's creative approach is informed by an artistic eye and a life spent immersed in nature. From growing up in Wales where days were spent exploring outdoors and flowers adorned every surface, to living in France surrounded by fields of sunflowers, iris and fragrant lavender, nature has always been an intrinsic part of her everyday life.

A comprehensive, single source of information on the plants and animals that live alongside us. This updated edition features new material on climate change, recycling and wild spaces in gardens. This friendly handbook is full of practical advice on attracting wildlife to your garden and encouraging creatures to stick around. A helpful introductory section includes expert tips on green gardening, seasonal planting, how to deal with garden predators and how to get children involved in gardening. A DIY chapter, with a step-by-step guide on creating projects for your garden - from building nest, bat and hedgehog boxes to making your own pond - is also included. From foxes to finches and from lizards to ladybirds, colour photographs illustrate almost 400 garden species, including mammals, birds, insects, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, flowers, trees, shrubs and fungi, while the comprehensive text explains everything you need to cultivate a haven for nature.

This book is a celebration of the Shirley Sherwood Collection of contemporary botanical art, made over a period of 30 years by Dr Shirley Sherwood and considered the most important private collection of its kind in the world. In 2018 the 1000th painting was added to the collection, a pocket handkerchief by Coral Guest.

Experience the joy of discovering the natural world around you with this beautiful pocket guide to British trees, an inspiration and treat designed to enthral all nature lovers. This comprehensive guide to British trees contains some of the finest original tree illustrations ever produced. Covering all tree species commonly found outside the major arboretums, the text highlights the most important things to look for to aid fast and accurate identification, and the illustrations are annotated with essential features. The introduction contains illustrations of the main leaves, buds, and firs you are likely to find, which also provide the starting point for identification by leading you to a 'key' species. Within each tree family there is a list of key species and a guide to the most important features to look for when identifying a particular tree from that family. Individual species are then thoroughly described and a detailed illustration features on the same page. This is the ideal pocket guide for travelling naturalists and tree enthusiasts alike and is an essential addition to every nature lover's bookshelves.

Meet the Indiana Jones of vegetables on his quest to save our heritage produce.

Have you ever wondered how everyday staples such as peas, kale, asparagus, beans, squash and sweetcorn ended up on our plates? Well, so did Adam Alexander. Adam’s passion for heritage vegetables was ignited when he tasted an unusual, sweet and fiery pepper while on a filmmaking project in Ukraine. Smitten by its flavour, he began to seek out local growers of old and near-forgotten varieties in a mission to bring home seeds to grow and share – saving them from being lost forever.

In The Seed Detective, Adam tells of his far flung (and closer to home) seed-hunting adventures and reveals the stories behind many of our everyday vegetable heroes. How the common garden pea was domesticated from three wild species over 8,500 years ago, that the first carrots originated in Afghanistan (and were actually purple or red in colour), how Egyptian priests considered it a crime to look at a fava bean and that the Romans were fanatical about asparagus.

Join The Seed Detective as he takes us on a journey that began when we left the life of hunter-gatherers to become farmers. Sharing storiesof globalisation, political intrigue, colonisation and serendipity, Adam shows us the vital part vegetables have played in our food story – and how they are the key to our future.

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?

A captivatingly informative and visually beautiful survey of the tree species - from all over the world - that human cultures have found most useful. Each tree species is the subject of a concise text centred on a story - or stories - about the tree in question, and is depicted by means of a photograph, painting or other aesthetic artefact. The species will be organized thematically according to the virtues they impart, be that in the form of timber, nuts, fruit or medicine. The bloodwood tree, a native of central America, is a tree that made a nation. Its wood produces a brilliant and lucrative bright red dye and was imported to Europe for use in dyeing fabrics. The 17th and 18th-century logging camps established by the British later became the modern nation of Belize, and the bloodwood tree appears on its national flag. From the bloodwood to the breadfruit and from the cinchona to the peach, these are trees that offer not merely shelter, timber and fuel but also medicines, dyes, foods and fibres. They are very special trees, and Max Adams, author of The Wisdom of Trees, has a plethora of such fascinating stories to tell about them.

This book is a dictionary of British (native, naturalised and cultivated) plants and the folklore associated with them. Unlike many plant-lore publications Vickery's Folk Flora tells us what people currently do and believe, rather than what Victorians did and believed. The result is a vivid demonstration that plant folklore in the British Isles is not only surviving but flourishing; adapting and evolving as time goes by, even in urban areas. Each entry includes: - The plant's English and scientific (Latin) name, as well as significant local names. - A brief description of the plant and its distribution, and, in the case of cultivated plants, a history of their introduction to the British Isles - Information on the folklore and traditional uses of the plant, arranged where possible in a sequence starting with general folk beliefs (superstitions), use in traditional customs, use in folk medicine, other uses, and legends concerning individual representatives of the plant. In addition to the major entries there are a number of minor entries for feast days, diseases and other subjects which direct readers to relevant major entries, e.g. St. George's Day, on which red roses are worn; dandelions are gathered; and runner beans are planted.

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.

'I absolutely adore Clare Nolan's approaches to garden planning and creative use of color in her designs. This gem is sure to delight any flower lover.' - Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm Planting cut flowers brings that 'grow-your-own' excitement to a whole new level - being able to step out of the back door and pick a single stem for beside the bed or pull together a posy for a friend is a joy. In this beautifully designed book, brimming with inspirational photographs, Clare Nolan reveals her secrets for growing a bountiful harvest as well as styling spectacular homegrown displays that will fill your home with colour and the gorgeous scent of the garden year-round. She takes the mystique out of what to grow and guides you through the entire process - from choosing the plants to suit both your garden and home decor and laying out your cutting patch, to planning ahead so you get your perfect palette of colour, texture and shape to play with at the right time. A whole chapter on arranging will inspire you to create spectacular arrangements for your home without the need for complicated floristry techniques.

Would you lick your fingers after picking a Lily of the Valley? Did no-one remember to warn you about fair Fool's Parsley? And where are the haunts of Satan's Boletus and the Destroying Angel? Hiding in the beautiful meadows and woods of Great Britain are particular plants, about which every sensible rambler, parent and picnicker should be properly informed. Let Frederick Gillam be your guide. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

Begin Identifying and Collecting Seven Edible Mushrooms! Since 1993, Start Mushrooming has been the trusted guide for beginners. This second edition introduces seven of the most common, edible wild mushrooms in North America. It features more photographs and expert tips from award-winning author and naturalist Stan Tekiela that make mushroom identification even easier. Start Mushrooming includes the information you need to start foraging with confidence. The focused look at seven wild, edible mushrooms includes a unique checklist-based approach to help you confirm each mushroom's identity. Plus, details on toxic species and advice from an author with extensive foraging skills help you learn what to watch out for and avoid. As an added bonus, the book includes a generous helping of tasty recipes. Wild mushrooms are beautiful, bountiful, and delicious. This is the easy way to start mushrooming.