Book Bearings
The Botany of Desire
- 298 pages · about 5 hours
- First published 2001
- 19 editions
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1 About this book
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. Pollan presents case studies mirroring four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed, and genetically engineer plants. Each of the book's four parts discusses a different plant and a corresponding human desire for which it historically has been cultivated: the apple for sweetness; the tulip for beauty; cannabis for intoxication; and the potato for control.
The stories presented are a blend of plant science and natural history, ranging from the true story of Johnny Appleseed, to Pollan's first-hand research with sophisticated cannabis hybrids in Amsterdam, to the paradigm-shifting possibilities of genetically engineered potatoes.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Gardening
- Nature
- Human-plant relationships
- Ethnobotany
- Nature, effect of human beings on
2 About Michael Pollan
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
3 More by Michael Pollan
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