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All life depends on plants but they are often taken for granted in our everyday lives. It is easy to ignore the fact that we are facing a crisis, with scientists estimating that one third of all flowering plant species are threatened with extinction. "Modern Day Arks" considers the essential conservation role of botanic gardens. Chapters feature gardens from around the world, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany, Turkey, Uganda, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and China, revealing how a global network is striving to save our botanical heritage.

Comments and photographs from the botanists involved lend an important personal angle to the text and reveal the important but little-known work that goes on behind the scenes of these beautiful gardens. In this elegant and engaging book, Sara Oldfield shows how botanic gardens truly are 'modern day arks' safeguarding species and saving resources on which we may soon depend. It is to be published in 2010, a year that sees the culmination of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.