About this item

The world of plants is endlessly fascinating and full of surprises, even for an experienced horticulturalist or gardener. This book celebrates that bounty through a tour of its stranger precincts, a beautifully illustrated A-to-Z compendium of fascinating facts, quirky stories, and unusual adaptations.Flipping through this elegant, approachable book, you'll encounter oddities like the breathing knees of the swamp cypress or the illicit whiskey distilleries once fueled by juniper wood. Do you know what a vegetable sheep is, or what plants the Egyptians used in embalming? That poison dart frogs raise their young in tank bromeliads in the upper reaches of the forest canopy? Or that oak galls can be used as a source of ink? You'll learn all that and more before you get to Z in this lovely gift book.