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Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives
by Stephen Buchmann
Cultural history at its best - the engaging, lively, and definitive story of the beauty, sexuality, ecology, myths, lore, and economics of the world's flowers, written by a passionately devoted author and scientist, and illustrated with his stunning photographs.
Flowers, and the fruits that follow, feed, clothe, sustain, and inspire all humanity. They have done so since before recorded history. Flowers are used to celebrate all-important occasions, to express love, and are also the basis of global industries. Americans buy ten million flowers a day and perfumes are a worldwide industry worth $30 billion dollars annually. Yet, we know little about flowers, their origins, bizarre sex lives, or how humans relate and depend upon them.
Stephen Buchmann takes us along on an exploratory journey of the roles flowers play in the production of our foods, spices, medicines, perfumes, while simultaneously bringing joy and health. Flowering plants continue to serve as inspiration in our myths and legends, in the fine and decorative arts, and in literary works of prose and poetry. Flowers seduce us - and animals, too - through their myriad shapes, colors, textures, and scents. And because of our extraordinary appetite for more unusual and beautiful "super flowers," plant breeders have created such unnatural blooms as blue roses and black petunias to cater to the human world of haute couture fashion. In so doing, the nectar and pollen vital to the bees, butterflies, and bats of the world, are being reduced. Buchmann explains the unfortunate consequences, and explores how to counter them by growing the right flowers. Here, he integrates fascinating stories about the many colorful personalities who populate the world of flowers, and the flowers and pollinators themselves, with a research-based narrative that illuminates just why there is, indeed, a Reason for Flowers.
"This well-researched book is best for those interested in an overview of the many aspects of flowers, both biological and cultural." - Library Journal
"A volume that is like a Eurail Pass that will carry you through gorgeous terrain you will want to explore in more depth." - Kirkus
"The Reason for Flowers is an extraordinarily good book. It covers the subject with thoroughness and scientific accuracy,working it (as flowers deserve) into history and culture, and written with poetic sensitivity." - Edward O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
"Stephen Buchmann is a gifted storyteller and an inquisitive scientist who is intrigued by the dazzling and intricate world of flowers. Thanks to this delightful new book, you will be, too." - Amy Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of The Flower Confidential
"This world-renowned explorer of nature's inner workings will delight you while unobtrusively edifying you at the same time." - Gary Paul Nabhan, Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable food Systems, University of Arizona
"The Reason for Flowers is a gardening book and more….We learn how our most beloved flowers came to be, along with new oddities like the black petunia. Every gardener and flower-lover will want this book." - Carrie Hulburd, President, Columbine Garden Club (GCA chapter) of Phoenix, AZ
"In this attractive book, Steve Buchmann brings to life for the interested reader the many facets of their existence and their interplay with insects and other animals, informing us well about how they evolved and the roles that they play in our world." - Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden
This information about The Reason for Flowers was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephen Buchmann, a pollination ecologist specializing in bees, is affiliated with the Departments of Entomology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. A fellow of the Linnean Society of London, he has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers and ten books, including The Forgotten Pollinators with Gary Paul Nabhan, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.
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