Authors Helen Sanderson and Hew Prendergast, from the Centre of Economic Botany at Kew, travelled across Britain, from the wetlands of the Tay Estuary, to wildflower meadows in West Sussex, to visit enterprises that use wild and traditionally managed plants for a range of products from food and drink, materials and fuels, to decoration, medicines and healthcare.
What they found was a multi-million pound industry that employs thousands of people each year. Britain's Wild Harvest shows that soap makers in Kent, marsh samphire collectors on Norfolk's muddy saltmarshes and basket weavers in Somerset, all contribute to the UK economy.