Drawing on sources both ancient and modern, and featuring lush full-color illustrations and gorgeous line art throughout, Potter examines our changing relationship with these potent plants and the effects they had on civilizations through the ages. The opium poppy, for example, returned to haunt its progenitors in the West, becoming the source of an enormously profitable drug trade in Asia. In the seventeenth century, the irrational exuberance of...

Introduces the physical characteristics, life cycle, and role of flowers in the world of plants.

Amy Merrick is a rare and special kind of artist who uses flowers to help us see the familiar in a completely new way. Her gift is to revel in the unexpected -- like a sunny spring arrangement housed in a paper coffee cup -- and to overturn preconceptions, whether she's transforming a bouquet of supermarket carnations into a breathtaking centerpiece or elevating wild and weedy blooms foraged from city sidewalks. She uses the beauty that is waiting...

"Wildflower Wonders showcases the most spectacular displays of wild blooms on the planet, from infrequent flowerings in the Mojave and other deserts to regular but no less stunning alpine wildflower 'events' in Italy, South Africa, and Australia. This magnificently illustrated volume features 200 panoramic full-color photographs as well as a color map for every site and at-a-glance information panels that highlight the kinds of flowers at each location...

Flowerpaedia is an A-Z reference guide of over 1000 flowers. A comprehensive dictionary of flowers researched and compiled by botanical explorer Cheralyn Darcey.