Showing 1–12 of 24 results
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Understanding flowers and flowering: an intergrated approach.
Artist/Author: Glover, Beverley.$82.00 Add to cartTo fully understand plant development (and why flowers differ in shape, structure and colour), it is necessary to understand why it is advantageous for them to look like they do. Conversely, in order to fully understand plant ecology, it is necessary to appreciate how floral structures have developed and evolved. This new edition has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest advances in the field, especially an increased understanding of the evolution of floral traits. New chapters consider the genetic basis of the floral transition in diverse species, as well as the evolutionary lability of floral form. There is a new focus throughout on both phylogenetic position and morphological diversity across the angiosperm phylogeny. Understanding Flowers and Flowering continues to provide the first truly integrated study of the topic – one that discusses both the how and why of flowering plant reproductive biology.
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Important Bird Areas of the Americas: Priority Sites for Biodiversity Conservation.
Artist/Author: Devenish, C. et al.$130.00 Add to cartThis directory provides a concise summary of the 2345 Important Bird Areas described to date in the Americas. The inventory represents a participative consensus on the most important sites for bird and biodiversity conservation in the hemisphere, in what is probably the most comprehensive assessment of its kind to be published. Since the beginning of the IBA program in North America in 1995, sites have now been identified in all 57 countries or territories in the region, totalling more than 3,250,000 km2. This book is the culmination of national IBA identification processes involving thousands of people in the Caribbean, North, Central and South America, and at least 150 governmental and non-governmental organizations. The directory is at once a high level awareness-raising publication; a decision-making tool for national and hemispheric biodiversity management and planning; and a portfolio of funding opportunities for potential donors.
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Peonies of the World: Taxonomy and Phytogeography
Artist/Author: De-Yuan, Hong.$165.00 Add to cartThe genus Paeonia is a famous group of plants that has been culturally significant in both the East and West for millennia, and is extensively cultivated for both ornamental and medicine purposes. The cultivated tree peony is known as ‘The King of Flowers’ in China, and the herbaceous peony was known as ‘The Queen of Herbs’ in ancient Greece. This book contains a comprehensive taxonomic revision of the genus based on extensive field observations, population sampling, examination of a large quantity of specimens (including type specimens) and statistic analysis of characters.
Recognition of 32 species in the book is a result of substantial taxonomic revision. The book will satisfy readers not only with the taxonomy of Paeonia, description and distribution, and other biological aspects of each species, but also with the methodology and principles, on which the taxonomic revision was based. A must have book for both plant taxonomists and horticulturists. -
Biology of the Red algae
Artist/Author: Cole, Kathleen M. and Robert G. Sheath, editors.$82.00 Add to cartThis book presents an authoritative review on the state of knowledge on the biology of the Red algae. Written by a group of 26 internationally renowned experts, the eighteen chapters of this book range from molecular and cellular to biochemical, physiological, organismal, and ecological aspects of this important group of algae. Together they will be of interest for students of oceanography and plant evolution.
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Pollination power
Artist/Author: Angel, Heather$70.00 Add to cartPollination Power is a visually spectacular insight into the hidden secrets of plant pollination, unravelling the deceit, tricks and rewards that plant bestow upon their pollinators. Throughout the book, full page colour photographs are accompanied with extended captions, telling the stories of the different pollination methods used by plants.
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Brilliant green: the surprising history and science of plant intelligence.
Artist/Author: Mancuso, Stefano and Alessandra Viola.$30.00 Add to cartIn this book, a leading plant scientist offers a new understanding of the botanical world and a passionate argument for intelligent plant life. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have argued that plants are unthinking and inert, yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged this idea, shedding new light on the complex interior lives of plants. In this book, leading scientist Stefano Mancuso presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. He argues that plants process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another – showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, this book is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom.
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A garden of marvels: how we discovered that flowers have sex, leaves eat air, and other secrets of plants.
Artist/Author: Kassinger, Ruth.$25.00 Add to cartCombing both curiosity and a playful spirit, this engaging book provides an anecdotal tutorial on the fascinating science of plants. After pruning a kumquat tree with the best of intentions, Kassinger watched as it proceeded to turn brittle and brown. Why did the kumquat die when a rose bush and a crape myrtle similarly clipped had thrived? While she knew the basic rules of caring for indoor plants, Kassinger realized that she understood very little about plant physiology–how roots, stems, leaves, and flowers actually function. Determined not to repeat her failure, she set out to learn the fundamentals of botany in order to become a better gardener. This is the story of her wise and enchanting odyssey to discover the secret life of plants.
Kassinger retraces the progress of the first botanists, including Charles Darwin, who banished myths and misunderstandings and discovered that flowers have sex, leaves eat air, roots choose their food, and hormones make morning glories climb fence posts. She goes out into the world as well, visiting modern gardens, farms, and labs to discover the science behind extraordinary plants like one-ton pumpkins, truly black petunias, ferns that eat the arsenic in contaminated soil, biofuel grass that grows twelve feet tall, and the world’s only photosynthesizing animal. Kassinger also introduces us to modern scientific research that offers hope for combatting climate change and alleviating world hunger. She then transfers her insights to her own garden.
Intertwining personal anecdotes, accessible science, and little-known history, A Garden of Marvels takes us on an eye-opening journey into Kassinger’s garden–and yours–offering us a new appreciation of this exquisite gift of nature.
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Plant behaviour and intelligence.
Artist/Author: Trewavas, Anthony.$113.00 Add to cartThis novel book is the first to properly address the controversial issue of plant intelligence, arguing convincingly that cells and whole plants growing in competitive wild conditions exhibit aspects of plant behaviour that can be accurately described as ‘intelligent’. The author expands on three main insights drawn by the Nobel Prize winning botanist Barbara McClintock: firstly that plant cells may have knowledge of themselves; secondly that they receive challenges which lead to behavioural changes; finally, that they do so in a manner which implies assessment and intelligent behaviour. By equating the concept of intelligent behaviour with that of adaptively variable behaviour, the book provides a novel integration of signalling, behaviour, and behavioural ecology, all set within the context of plant studies. Plant Behaviour and Intelligence begins with chapters on the origins and multicellular nature of plant life, before going on to discuss novel behaviours such as branch initiation and growth, unusual behaviour of leaves, and how roots reconstruct their sensing systems and are capable of self-recognition. An entire chapter is devoted to the nature of intelligence and another to the vexed question of ‘consciousness’, as applied to plant life. This advanced textbook will be suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking related courses in plant ecology and evolution. It will also be of relevance and use to a broader audience of professional plant ecologists seeking an authoritative reference text to help them navigate the complexity and controversy of plant behaviour.
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Plant physics.
Artist/Author: Niklas, Karl J. and Hanns-Christof Spatz.$64.00 Add to cartMany of our greatest physicists, mathematicians, and engineers such as Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci have learned much from studying plants. A symbiotic relationship between botany and the fields of physics, mathematics, engineering, and chemistry continues today, as is revealed in this book. The result of a long-term collaboration between plant evolutionary biologist Karl J. Niklas and physicist Hanns-Christof Spatz, this book presents a detailed account of the principles of classical physics, evolutionary theory, and plant biology in order to explain the complex interrelationships among plant form, function, environment, and evolutionary history. Covering a wide range of topics, from the development and evolution of the basic plant body and the ecology of aquatic unicellular plants to mathematical treatments of light attenuation through tree canopies and the movement of water through plants’ roots, stems, and leaves, this book is destined to inspire students and professionals alike to traverse disciplinary membranes.
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The life of a leaf.
Artist/Author: Vogel, Steven.$40.00 Add to cartIn this book, the leaf serves as a biological example, an ordinary living thing that nonetheless speaks volumes about our environment as well as its own. Thus in exploring the leaf’s world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own, answering questions about how objects get much hotter than air when in sunlight and far cooler when beneath a clear night sky, how air movement matters even when we can’t feel it, how objects such as trees avoid damage from storms, and how gases diffuse and bubbles form. He introduces us to ways leaves acquire the essential resources needed to grow and reproduce, resources not all that different from those needed by animals and humans. In considering science on our personal scale, Vogel refers complex concepts to everyday observations in our immediate experiences. Within these pages, he provides incredible food for thought and the tools for a new way of seeing the beauty and simplicity of the science of life. Also available in hardcover [stock id 34465].
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Hidden geometry of flowers: living rhythms, form and number.
Artist/Author: Critchlow, Keith.$59.00 Add to cartIn this beautiful and original book, renowned thinker and geometrist Keith Critchlow has chosen to focus on an aspect of flowers that has received perhaps the least attention. This is the flower as teacher of symmetry and geometry. What is evident in the geometry of the face of a flower can remind us of the geometry that underlies all existence. Working from his own flower photographs and with every geometric pattern hand-drawn, the author reviews the role of flowers within the perspective of our relationship with the natural world. His illuminating study is an attempt to re-engage the human spirit in its intimate relation with all nature.
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What a plant knows: a field guide to the senses.
Artist/Author: Chamovitz, Daniel.$28.00 Add to cartIn this book, renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz explores how plants experience sight, smell, touch, hearing, memory, and even awareness. Using cutting-edge research coupled with lively storytelling, Chamovitz explains the intimate details of plant behaviour, from how a willow tree knows when its neighbours have been commandeered by an army of ravenous beetles, and why an avocado ripens when you give it the company of a banana in a bag (it’s the pheromones). And he settles the debate over whether the beloved basil on your kitchen windowsill cares whether you play Led Zeppelin or Bach. This is a rare inside look at the life of plants.
