50 Plants that Changed the World

About this book

This is a new and updated edition of the 2015 title What Have Plants Ever Done for Us? Western Civilization in Fifty Plants.

Have you ever stopped to think about how your morning cappuccino came to be? From the coffee bush that yielded the beans, to the grass for the cattle – or perhaps the soya – that produced the milk, plants are an indispensable part of our everyday life.

Beginning with some of the earliest uses of plants, Stephen Harris takes us on an exciting journey through history, identifying fifty plants that have been key to the development of the Western world, discussing trade, imperialism, politics, medicine, travel and chemistry along the way. There are plants here that have changed landscapes, fomented wars and fuelled slavery. Others have been the trigger for technological advances, expanded medical knowledge or simply made our lives more pleasant. Plants have provided paper and ink, chemicals that could kill or cure, vital sustenance and stimulants. Some, such as barley, have been staples from earliest times; others, such as oil palm, are newcomers to Western industry.

We remain dependent on plants for our food, our fuel and our medicines. As the wide-ranging and engaging stories in this beautifully illustrated book demonstrate, their effects on our lives continue to be profound and often unpredictable.

Contents

Introduction
The plants
Barley
Mandrake
Beets
Opium poppy
Brassicas
Cannabis
Bread wheat
Broad bean
Alliums
Pea
Olive
Grape
Papyrus
Yew
Rose
Pines
Reeds
Oak
Apple
Pepper
Carrot
Woad
Citrus
Nutmeg
White mulberry
Tobacco
Tulip
Chilli
Quinine
Cocoa
Potato
Tomato
Coffee
Maize
Pineapple
Smooth meadow grass
Lycopods
Cotton
Sugar cane
Coconut
Rice
Tea
Ragwort
Banana
Rubber
Sunflower
Oil palm
Soya
Corncockle
Thale cress

Customer Reviews

Biography

Stephen A. Harris is Druce Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria.