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‘Noble Nine’ delves into fascinating botanical history and cutting edge science to explore why wine tastes the way it does, and how biology, weather and human shape it. Hugely informative and entertaining, it opens a unique window onto wine: its qualities, its heritage, and its future, from vine to glass and every stage in between.
Most of life on Earth is plant. And yet the half a million species of plant alive today are a minuscule fraction of those that have ever existed. The true story of the plant kingdom’s almost inconceivable variety and ingenuity is to be found in the past. From the arrival of the first plants on land 484 million years ago to the globe-spanning diversity of flora we know today, ‘Green Kingdom’ traces the evolution of plant life across eons and continents, reanimating the lost worlds that shaped its course and dramatically expanding our vision of what it means to be a plant. Through the stories of sixteen plant families, from the humble bog moss to the exquisite adaptations of the orchid, we witness how plant life colonised land, pioneered leaves, recruited fungi, invented wood, sunk roots, formed seeds, manipulated animals and ultimately came to dominate our planet.
Collins Gardener’s Bible is the sixth title in this stunning and engaging series. It is packed with absolutely everything you need to be an effective, sustainable and fulfilled gardener.
‘A British Flora’ introduces all Britain’s flowers and plants – of field, hedgerow and garden, both rare and common. Each one is listed by family and then with their Latin, common and also various regional names – with a discussion of their magical, mythical, culinary religious and medicinal properties and literary and historical connections. Scattered throughout the book are medieval woodcuts, rhymes, proverbs and potions.
To appreciate the wonders of the world around us, we’re often told to look up. But what if we need to look down instead? Everything that happens below ground sustains all life above it – yet we rarely think about this mysterious, dark underland. In this work, soil ecologist Frank Ashwood scratches the surface and takes us on an eye-opening safari through this precious ecosystem, from the ancient forests of New Zealand to the vast black soil deposits of the US and China. Every layer of the pedosphere is a world of its own, each more alien than the last as we travel deeper into the Earth. The ground beneath our feet hums with a staggering abundance of winding roots, interconnecting fungal networks, wriggling creatures and mind-blowing microbial life. This hidden ecosystem is the single most biodiverse habitat on the planet.
Ancient woods are Britain’s richest habitats: rare fragments of our landscape that teem with life from soil to canopy. They live in our collective imagination as quiet places, best left pristine and untouched. But their story has always been one of interdependence with people. Now, as ever, these woods – including remnants of the primeval ‘wildwood’ – need the thoughtful intervention of humans to survive. With the benefit of over twenty years’ experience rehabilitating ancient woodland – from the Lakes to the Peak District, by way of suburban London’s hidden gems – Luke Barley brings us deep into this hidden world to reveal majestic oaks, freshly coppiced hazels, endangered limes, and the passionate individuals tending them for future generations.
Three months after Kyo Maclear’s father dies in December 2018, she gets the result of a DNA test showing that she and the father who raised her are not biologically related. Suddenly Maclear becomes a detective in her own life, desperately seeking answers from her ailing mother whose memories and English are failing. Maclear no longer speaks Japanese, her mother’s first language, so she turns to her mother’s second fluent tongue: the wild and green language of soil, seed, leaf and mulch. Can the humble act of tending a garden provide common ground for an inquisitive daughter and her complicated mother?
This title provides an inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, ‘Gathering Moss,’ was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. In this book, Kimmerer reveals what is means to see humans as ‘the younger brothers of creation’.
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