COULD IT BE? TWENTY YEARS? WITH MY VINTAGE REVIEW still the lead blurb on the opening page? And 200,000+ copies in print? Yup, yup, and yup: Brian Capon’s masterpiece, “Botany for Gardeners,” was reissued recently, and my glowing praise (written when I was garden editor at “Newsday” newspaper) still applies: “Here is a magical little book for anyone wanting to know the why of gardening’s many miracles.” I believe that this is an essential reference for every gardener—and every young person who otherwise won’t learn the botanical sciences and miss out on a whole lot of life–so I’m offering you a chance to win one of two copies I’m giving away:
The English-born Capon, a doctor of botany from the University of Chicago who went on to be a professor at California State University, Los Angeles for 30 years, has since retired, leaving time for the revamping of “Botany for Gardeners,” the bestselling title for its publisher, Timber Press, in the U.S. and England.
Not only did Capon write it; he illustrated it, too, and even took the plant photographs that further bring the text to life. Capon is also a lifelong gardener, though images of his own place never appear in the pages.
“Botany for Gardeners” was born as a textbook out of lecture notes for a botany class Capon taught for many years to non-science students, so it’s thorough—but not the kind of dense, full-fledged botany text that will scare you away.
In fact (even 20 years later), it just keeps drawing me back in, especially for tidbits like these. Did you know:
- That litmus, the dye used to indicate acidity and alkalinity, is extracted from a lichen? (And another lichen fact: A lichen is a symbiotic reaction between fungus and algae. Who knew?)
- That the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), North America’s tallest cactus species, can live 150 years?
- That the branch of a tree is buried deep in the tree’s trunk—not some appendage stuck on merely from the bark outward. Knots in lumber are actually slices through the bases of a branch.
- That there are about 400,000 species of plants—and of those about 150,000 don’t flower.
- That camouflage isn’t just for animals, or the military: Even seeds use it. The color, size and thickness of the covering of many seeds serves to protect them from predation (read: eating by a bird or mouse, for instance). I just never thought of a seed needing to remain safe from predation but yes, of course.
- What the word is for the oozing that happens from the stump when a herbaceous stem is severed, or that you sometimes see exuding from leaf margins? It’s called guttation, and is caused by root pressure. (I just love this word, now that I know it.)
- That the tallest tree, at 379.1 feet, is a California coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens?
Of course, “Botany for Gardeners” is far more than mere fun tidbits like those. Capon thoroughly covers the bigger picture of how plants work, starting from the cellular level and moving all the way through subjects as complex as reproduction and genetics—each in an understandable manner.
For this gardener, the “why’s” that I’ve been gleaning from Capon all these years certainly have made looking out the window or working in the yard even more miraculous that the mere sight and scents alone ever could have. I highly recommend jumping into botany for gardeners, Capon-style.
The Giveaway Details:
To win one of two copies of “Botany for Gardeners” that I bought to share with you:
Simply comment below by telling us something you think of as a botanical miracle, whether you know the “why” behind it or not. I’ll pick two random winners on Friday, July 30, at noon, when entries will close.
In Amy Goldman’s gorgeous book, “The Compleat Squash,” there is a picture of a male squash flower and a female squash flower. Suddenly I was made aware, truly, that nature is truly sexy.
I was once told that ferns have flagellated sperm. I found this fascinating.
I was amazed to discover this year that corn grows little “toes” at the base of the stalk. I assume these are some sort of root structure, but I have no idea what they are for or why this happens. Haven’t been able to find any references to it.
Colchicums bloom while the corms are dormant! And the ovary is down in the corm at that time. Seeds show up the next spring, in the center of the leaves.
The naked ladies that have returned to Indiana Gardens, seemingly overnight.
From Joyce Kilmer……I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree.
He was speaking of the Canadian Hemlock, and it is lovely. Plan one now and your great great grandchildren can have a picnic under it and think of you. It is almost forever.
A fertilized orchid takes up to seven years to yield a flowering plant. Imagine being pregnant all that time! This, and other amazing stuff, from the delightfully written book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean.
Watching my grandchildren touch Mimosa Pudica (Sensitive Plant) is a delight. For them, it is a miracle. For me, the miracle is the plants survival ability.
I love when some plants, such as snapdragons and parsley, which are considered annuals come back the next year. Other perennials in my garden may die back or freeze but snapdragons make a hearty summer appearance.
I grew a Siamese zucchini, the twins are fused together vertically and share a single stem.
How often does that happen in the plant world?
Is a skygazer lily Asiatic?
The univeral language of botanical Latin, so that all botanists no matter where they live can speak to one another. In my early thirties my mentor and very dear friend Bea Jones, Garden Writer for Newsday Newspaper, taught me the importance of learning Latin plant names.
Squash that grows three feet overnight
When I first started gardening years ago a knowledgeable gardener told me that if you deprive a plant of sunlight it will eventually die. This was told to me as we were discussing dandelions and eliminating them from beds without resorting to chemicals. Seems like such a simple concept, but to someone that was as new to gardening as I was it was a lightbulb moment!
I am always amazed at the tenacity of plants that are accidentally dug up by my dog or cut down by the naive lawn guy. On a couple of occasions with a broccoli plant and a nasturtium that I think couldn’t possibly be able to come back from that onslaught but after a mild drooping, they get back and keep on trucking! There is something we can learn from that attitude.
I live in a very old oak forest and these trees are so intelligent they can predict the weather pattern 6 months ahead of time.
the shear “EMOTION” of “JOY” and smiles and warmth that flowers et all things
botanical bring to the table ( pun intended i.e. fruits, vegetables, herbs)of our lives.
It is miraculous!!!!!! ahhhh the sweet scents of flowers (a rose!).
That some plants can regenerate from the tiniest bits (frustrating when it’s a weed, but it still amazes me!)
While researching the pink lady slipper for this blog post:
http://franklincountymgs.blogspot.com/2009/09/camera-finds-lady-slipper.html
I learned this about how they are pollinated:
“Bumblebees are lured into the pouch of the labellum through the slit in the front, attracted by the bright color and sweet scent of the flower. Once inside, they find no reward, and discover that they are trapped–with only one point of escape. Inside the pouch, there are hairs which lead to a pair of openings, one beneath each pollen mass. First, however, the bee must pass under the stigma, so if it bears any pollen from a visit to another flower, it will be deposited before picking up a fresh load, thus preventing self-pollination.
Unfortunately, the bees quickly learn from their experiences and soon avoid C. acaule flowers. Thus, like several other orchids in our flora, they are dependent on naive bees, and generally experience very low pollination rates (Davis 1986).”
As I said at the time, “I’m not sure if it’s the seeming cunning of the flower, or the learning process of the bee that impresses me more.”
I own a copy of Botany for Gardeners by Harold William Pickett.
My botanical miracle: Not a miracle per se, but the presence of “cotton” within the buds of horsechestnuts.
I think it is a botanical miracle, that after a year of looking completely dead, and actually leaning over in heavy wind, my fig tree did, indeed, start growing up out of the ground from the roots.
The pollination process. I watch the bees pollinate my raspberries. The raspberries respond to this by providing me with delightful tasty berries. Or the corn as it goes to tassel and dusts the silk of the developing ears with the pollen necessary for producing an ear. On and on it goes. What botanical miracle!
Hello,
I am fascinated by the fact that trees do not heel but rather they isolate and cover their wounds with walls: one horizontal, one lateral, one from the inside out and one that grows on the outside of the tree to cover the wound. Theh process is, of course, more elaborate but I think it can be summarize as above.
Michelle
The miracle of variagated leaves always amazes me.
Water. How every plant needs it. Some areas get more water than others, but all plants have adapted to their share. In the Atacama Desert, cacti have hairs that capture dew droplets from the fogs that roll in in the morning. In the peat bogs of Canada, plants live up to their necks in water but don’t rot to death. Watermelons and other fruits are just sacks of water, storing it in their cells for later use.
While in Costa Rica long ago I learned of a rain forest tree that actually travels, very slowly of course. My dwarf Plumbago ground cover and pernnial ferns do that also; oh well, as long as they’re happy.
It seems a miracle to me that my potted up” elephant ear filled an entire half barrel planter with its roots, all the way up to the soil surface, and… added two new giant leaves in just 7 days!
The first taste of the first vegetable I grew myself. It was a perfect little jalapeno.
I think it’s a miracle that tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are related botanically, and taste great together. They’re so different yet complementary in flavor!
The fact that they were able to bring out from seed a pygmy water lily (Nymphaea thermarum ) at Kew Gardens (UK); one that was aready extict in the wild in its origin country Rwanda.
It shows we sometimes can also give back to Nature, not only just take and take.
It is amazing to me that the dahlia tubers that I pitched into my compost pile LAST FALL are now blooming more profusely than the ones I stored inside, coddled all winter and started early in the greenhouse. They are sticking out the side of my compost pile laughing at the ones in my garden, who are only now just starting to flower. This is the revenge of the too-bright-yellow dahlia.
Sexy! You want sexy? Watch a bumblebee go at the comfrey flowers. Yowza. That’s enthusiasm for you.
This book sounds fascinating.
Last week we had a tornado at our house with 1″ of pea sized hail left on the ground and most every leaf in my landscape fringed and tattered, many stripped from their stems completely. The miracle of cell multiplication, tiny seeds becoming plants and trees, is my favorite. Already the stems that were bare are pushing new growth and through the now brown, dry leaf matter, much of my garden is regenerating, like a phoenix.
My botanical miracle… Heirloom vegetables! Nature provides us with
Springtime in Omaha is a botanical miracle!!! How beautiful the rebirth after ten below winters—it’s beyond miraculous.
I’d like to think that the miracle is that plants have roped us into their world. That they’ve managed to get us to cultivate, propagate, manage, till, harvest, sow, fertilize, feed, water, care for, fuss over, and write endless blogs about their existence.
I find it amazing that wildflower (and most weed) seeds know how long to remain dormant. I feel a little guilty when I try to “trick” one in to sprouting.
The wonder that a teeny tiny little seed like basil grows up to provide a bounty of pleasure to satisfy all the senses, especially the soul. And that it brings people together to share a wonderful meal. Wow!
Seeds are a miracle of adaptation, in the many ways developed by plants to disperse them and the cues that tell them when to grow. Some seeds only develop after being scorched by fire, which maybe tells them the ground is clear for their growth. Others take light or moisture or weeks of cold as a cue. Imagine if seeds sprouted immediately after falling to the ground, regardless of conditions. We’d more easily free ourselves of weeds, but so many other species would also perish, choked beneath a dark tree or layer of leaves or frozen as a young seedling because it sprouted in October. And the birds and animals that survive by eating the seeds would be in trouble also.
I can be stiff and hurting from my RA but after an hour in the garden, both body and soul are loose and flowing again. That is the miracle of my garden.
Plants ability to reproduce itself through various methods of seed dispersal is a botanical miracle to me. Not only can they do this, but have unique ways of doing it that best suits the environment it’s in; whether by wind, carried off by animals, water, or their own developed methods – it all works!
Here are some examples:
Many plants have developed unique ways of dispersal using wind. Their seeds have wings or other hair-like structures attached that help disperse the seed.
Other plants dispersal methods are dependent on animals. These seeds have barbs or other incased structures that get tangled in animal fur or feathers, and are then carried off to new sites. Other plants produce their seeds inside fruits that get eaten by animals, digested, and are then dropped in other locations (birds). Some animals like squirrels bury seeds to save for later, but may not ever return for the seed (acorns).
Many aquatic plants have seeds that can float, and carried off by water; therefore germinating at new sites.
And other plants have their own unique ways to disperse seeds like pods that “shoot” or “explode” seeds out when touched.
All of this is a miracle to me! Thanks Margaret for this opportunity!
The miracle for me is that I can plant and replant with abandon and so many times the items in my garden are content to just go along for the ride and flourish.
Every year, I wonder how an onion-sized amaryllis bulb creates, and then pushes out a huge flower pod, containing 1-4 flowers. Where did it come from? Where did it get the room required? It’s like bulb childbirth! I can’t help but think they’re huffing and puffing.
When I stuck a corkscrew willow stick in the middle of my garden when I was a young teen, I didn’t actually believe that it would sprout roots and quickly become a pretty sizable tree.
Every time I take a moment in the spring to really look closely at any flower or new leaf (especially if I take a picture with a macro lens) I am amazed at the simple complexity of life. I am utterly in awe of every moment to the point of friends and family rolling their eyes. But I just can’t help myself :)
eleisa
Ever since I learned this, I have loved it, partly for the sound of the word and partly for the miracle of how it works.
Vernation (the unfolding of a leaf in spring) and circinate vernation (the unfolding of a fern frond in spring). Plus I think there are other kinds of vernation that I no longer remember.
Just one of the zillions of botanical “miracles.”
I am constantly amazed by the new growth coming from the tips of my shrubs. I celebrate every new leaf tip.
At one point in my life I was considering Botany in University, unfortunately I just didn’t see how that would support me financially. Now I am an accountant, and a closet botanist.
I can’t top the above comments…but I will definitely get the book.
photosynthesis – big word in 10th grade biology, but it still fascinates me.
I really like your website, and enjoy your e-mails tremendously. Please keep sending them. xoxo
My favortie botanic miracle is the miracle of compost. The idea that what some think of as garbage turns into this rich black gold never ceases to amaze me. So much so that (much to the chagrin of my husband)I save my city compost scraps for my country compost heap !