The botany of desire
Subtitle: a plant's eye view of the world
By: Michael Pollan.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
ISBN-13: 9780375501296
Subjects: Human-plant relationships
Description: Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a
similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-256) and index.
Table of contents: title: Desire, sweetness : plant, the apple; title: Desire, beauty : plant, the tulip; title: Desire, intoxication : plant, marijuana; title: Desire, control : plant, the potato.