Just about everyone's familiar with the Venus flytrap...but did you know that there are pitcher plants that can-and do!-digest an entire rat? Or that there are several hundred species of carnivorous plants on our planet? Full-color photographs of the plants at work and play, plus everything you need to know to successfully grow your own Little Shop of Horrors.Awards1999 American Horticultural Society Book Award Winner ReviewsHow to get kids interested in gardening? The San Francisco Chronicle recommends The Savage Garden, "because there's nothing children like better than catching insects and feeding them to their houseplants."

    Line drawings highlight family characteristics, and plant entries discuss medicinal uses, edibility, toxicity, and look-alike plants. A standard reference at herbal and wilderness schools across the country, this resource is essential for herbalists, gardeners, and naturalists.

    The most powerful plants--those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives--such as cannabis, datura, and papaver--then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as “legal highs,” plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma. The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs--many of which are from the author’s extensive fieldwork around the world--showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactives.

    Each entry includes identification characteristics related to leaves, buds, and stems. Most are accompanied by an illustration of the leaf or branch. Additional facts about each plant are available on topics such as flowers and/or fruits, diseases and insects, landscape value, propagation, and native habitat.

    Anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman has devoted 25 years to the task of gathering together the accumulated ethnobotanical knowledge on more than 4000 plants. More than 44,000 uses for these plants by various tribes are documented here. This is undoubtedly the most massive ethnobotanical survey ever undertaken, preserving an enormous store of information for the future.

    This full-color encyclopedia offers over 1,000 natural remedies for the prevention, treatment, and cure of common ailments and conditions.

    Using her own upsate New York property as her model and laboratory, she leads us through the garden's seasons as they parallel the stages of our own lives. First is conception (the idea of the garden as it takes shape in January and February), followed by birth (the planting time of March and April), youth (an explosion of flowers in May and June), adulthood (harvesting and dividing in July and August), senescence (taking inventory in September and October), and death and afterlife (the winter garden of November and December).For every month she makes note of the activities of the moment -- how to plan a garden before the snow melts, select hardy and forgiving plants that build the gardener's confidence, plant a 'late-start' vegetable garden, create a crevice garden in the cracks of the patio, and force bulbs indoors to stave off the winter blues.Throughout, Roach's friendly, conversational writing not only explains exactly what needs to be done and how to do itt, but also inspires us with a love of gardening itself -- the closest many of us come to nature in our everyday lives.

    Each monthly section discusses one herb in detail -- how and where it grows and what it does -- and presents recipes for simple teas, lotions, and foods, along with rituals appropriate to the season that can bring your life back into harmony with the moods of nature. Even in the city, the constant presence of the natural world and the use of herbs can be a touchstone to lead both body and soul back to a natural cadence.

    Containing over 900 entries of general disease conditions and corresponding herbal treatments, this book covers therapeutic action, 550 monographs of medicinal plants, and the properties of herbs and preparations such as tinctures, liquid extracts, poultices and essential oils.

    Notes on origin of name, ecology, native uses, edibility and similar species are included, as are color-coded sections to allow for quick identification.

    Beginning with the First Mother in sub-Saharan Africa more than 200,000 years ago, Aurora Levins Morales takes readers on a journey through time and around the globe.We learn of Juana de Asbaje, author of the "Reply to Sor Filotea" in 1693, the first feminist essay written in the New World; Gracia Nasi, Constantinople's "Queen of the Jews"; the African-American activist and warrior of words Ida B. Wells; and the unlikely martyr and symbol, Ethel Rosenberg.Levins Morales weaves in her own story of pain and healing, ameliorated by the restorative power of memory, and bears witness to a larger history of resistance and abuse by women and men.This historical memoir revives our connection to the forgotten lore of our grandmothers, featuring explanations of the medicinal properties of herbs and and foods such as rosemary, ginkgo, and banana. With love, joy, and defiance, Levins Morales offers Remedios as testimony to those barely recorded or known to history, the women who shaped our world.Aurora Levins Morales is author of Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity (South End Press, 1998) and Getting Home Alive (Firebrand, 1986). A Jewish "red diaper baby" from the mountains of Puerto Rico, Morales writes lucidly about the complexities of social identity. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.[box]Also available from South End PressMedicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of IntegrityTC $14.00, 0-89608-581-3 o CUSADeColores Means All of UsTP $18.00, 0-89608-583-X o CUSALoving in the War YearsTP $17.00, 0-89608-626-7 o CUSA

    It does more than make one healthy, it creates lust and knowledge, ecstasy and mythological insight. In Witchcraft Medicine the authors take the reader on a journey that examines the women who mix the potions and become the healers; the legacy of Hecate; the demonization of nature's healing powers and sensuousness; the sorceress as shaman; and the plants associated with witches and devils. They explore important seasonal festivals and the plants associated with them, such as wolf's claw and calendula as herbs of the solstice and alder as an herb of the time of the dead--Samhain or Halloween. They also look at the history of forbidden medicine from the Inquisition to current drug laws, with an eye toward how the sacred plants of our forebears can be used once again.

    This work shows that on the most fundamental level, environmental problems are cuased by human management decisions rather than the commonly blamed culprits of environmental degradation, overpopulation, poor farming practices and lack of financial support.

    It presents everything the gardener needs to know to create intricate, small-scale ecosystems in an urban or suburban setting that can substitute for the rapidly vanishing habitats that are essential to the survival of butterflies.Contributors to this volume include Miriam Rothschild, an eminent entomologist, avid butterfly gardener, and expert in wildflower conservation, who describes the life cycle of butterflies, how and what they see, and how this relates to "gardening with butterflies." Landscape architect Mary Booth provides imaginative garden designs and easy-to-follow directions for designing and planting. Edward S. Ross, pioneer of close-up nature photography, discusses observing and photographing butterflies.The book also includes a "Master Plant List" of species that attract butterflies, butterfly food plants listed by geographic region, seed and plant resources, a list of gardening and conservation organizations, and a bibliography of books and periodicals about butterflies.

    There are also helpful hints all through out the book. There is a perennial for every type of garden whether you have wet or dry soil or you have direct sun or shade. Jeff Cox's found not only 1 but 150 of the best perennials to make up Perennial All-Stars! Everyone can learn something from the novice gardener to the experienced gardener with Perennial All-Stars.

    A working manual designed for use by both nursery professionals and home gardeners.

    Now she applies her loving watercolor brush and witty pen to the botanical world. 100 illustrations.

    They were considered lost for 40 years after World War II until their discovery in the Jagiellon University Library in Cracow, Poland.

    Includes 3,000 species and 7,000 varieties of food plants. More than 1300 catalog sources for seeds, plants and food products are listed. Revised, updated and expanded edition.

    From Earth to Herbalist is a must for anyone interested in making and using their own plant medicines.

    We no longer have to limit ourselves to the 50 to 60 fruits and vegetables commonly grown in North America but can now learn and begin to enjoy more than 4,000 wild and delicious foods growing in our own back yards!Noted ethnobotanist Dr. Francois Couplan has been teaching the uses of various fruits, nuts, and grains world wide since 1975 and has published more than 13 books about plants in both French and German. He has worked with world-renowned chefs including Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York, to bring wild plants to gourmet menus and has been cooking with hundreds of different plants for the past thirty years. This title is not only a guide to intriguing and palatable edible plants based on the author's personal experiences but a unique pathway to appreciating nature.

    Planted as single specimens in beds or on the terrace in a container, grasses are striking focal points. Smaller forms bring rhythm and diversity to mixed borders, and clumping forms richly carpet the ground. This beautifully illustrated book by two imaginative garden designers will provide equal measures of information and inspiration.

    Children learn to identify a variety of different plant, animal and insect species.-- Helps children identify different species.-- Includes scrapbook pages, for notes or drawings.-- Features detailed true-to-life illustrations.

    This climate of mild, rainy winters and dry, warm summers is found in California, Central Chile, the Cape Region of South Africa, the southwestern part of Australia and the Mediterranean Basin. The regions are widely separated and the flora of each is distinctive, having for the most part developed independently. Nevertheless, the plants share remarkably similar characteristics which allow them to thrive in these unusual conditions.Peter Dallman's non-technical prose is complemented by numerous maps, tables, and figures, and the book is richly illustrated with photographs of landscapes, plants, and flowers. With its detailed information on some of the world's most resilient plant life, this book will serve as an excellent reference for everyone interested in growing drought-resistant plants and as a naturalist's guide to these beautiful and unusual bioregions.For the growing number of travelers whose vacations focus on learning about and appreciating natural history, Dallman also includes a chapter on planning trips to the five Mediterranean regions.

    But, as many contemporary medical practices are found to be ineffective, or even harmful, more and more people are turning to ancient natural remedies. For those interested in exploring the healing properties of herbs, this thorough book could prove an invaluable guide. Indeed, the introduction states the author's intention of providing, "a worry-free method for handling life's daily challenges to health and happiness." Who could ask for more? Handsomely bound in hardcover, Herbal Tonic Therapies is separated into comprehensive chapters on the various systems of the body, describing favorable tonics for each and including detailed information on the unlikely possibility of deleterious side effects. The book is scholarly, but written with the layperson in mind, offering a complete guide to medicinal alternatives for innumerable health problems from the most common cold to serious, life-threatening diseases. --George Laney

    

    states and two Canadian provinces, the central hardwood forests cover a wide variety of habitats and include trees adapted to a corresponding broad range of conditions. There are 188 species of native or naturalized trees to be found in these forests. Descriptions are provided for these 188 species, plus 84 trees that are commonly planted in the region. This guide furnishes practical summer and winter keys to the genera and keys to species. Trees are carefully described, including habit, bark, twigs, buds, leaves, flowers, fruit, wood, habitat, and range - and of further help for those who wish to grow them - propagation, value both for wildlife and for landscape use, and distinctive features best for recognizing the trees and appreciating them. More than 1000 photographs are provided, 907 illustrating characteristics for ready identification and 116 in color displaying ornamental attributes. More than 200 maps and other drawings complete the illustrations.

    Aimed at undergraduate students in both the biological and agricultural sciences, the book covers all aspects of plant pathology, from a description of the diseased plant and the varius pathogens, to the way in which disease epidemics are caused and are controlled. This new edition has been extensively revised to reflect recent advances in our understanding of the intractions between host and pathogens at both the molecular and cellular levels, highlighting the impact of molecular genetic techniques on the analysis of host specificity, pathogenecity and resistance to infection. New chapters on chemical, cultural and integrated approaches to disease control discuss the topical issues of disease management. A thoroughly revised edition of a popular, classic text authored by a leading expert in the field. Contains new chapters on disease assessment and disease management. Competetively priced.