About this item
In this little book of horrors, Chris Thorogood reveals the weird, the wonky, and the sinister specimens he has encountered during his travels in the wide world of plants. Far from passively absorbing the suns rays, these plants kill, steal and kidnap, making them dynamic participants in the ecosystems around them. From orchids that duplicitously look, feel and even smell like a female insect to bamboozle sex-crazed male bees to giant pitcher plants that have evolved toilets for tree shrews to carnivorous plants that drug, drown, and consume unsuspecting insect prey, Weird Plants takes us deep inside the worlds of plants whose imaginative and calculating survival methods are startlingly reminiscent of human schemes. To guide us through these unfamiliar plantscapes, Thorogood has organized his book into seven categories fit for a horror film: Vampires, Killers, Fraudsters, Jailers, Accomplices, Survivors, and Hitchhikers. These categories take us through a variety of plant life and around the world, documenting the remote corners where many of these specimens are found. Through the combination of Thorogoods oil paintings and botanical expertise, these fantastic plants come alive on the page.
About the Author
Dr Chris Thorogood is a botanist at the University of Oxford, and an illustrator and public speaker. Chris's research interests centre on evolutionary genetics, plant taxonomy and biodiversity hotspots. Specifically he is interested in the evolution of parasitic and carnivorous plants, as well as taxonomic diversity in biodiversity hotspots including the Mediterranean Basin region and Japan. Chris won a scholarship in 2005 to carry out his PhD research on speciation in parasitic plants at the University of Bristol, for which he was awarded a Faculty Commendation, and the national Irene Manton Prize for best thesis in botany in 2009. Chris is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and a Junior Research Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford.
