The Reason for Flowers, Stephen Buchmann
The Reason for Flowers, Stephen Buchmann
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The Reason for Flowers
Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives

Author: Stephen Buchmann

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Unabridged: 14 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/21/2015


Synopsis

Flowers, and the fruits that follow, feed, clothe, sustain, and inspire all humanity. Flowers are used to celebrate all-important occasions, to express love, and are also the basis of global industries. Americans buy ten million flowers a day and perfumes are a worldwide industry worth $30 billion dollars annually.

Stephen Buchmann takes us along on an exploratory journey of the roles flowers play in the production of our foods, spices, medicines, perfumes, while simultaneously bringing joy and health. Flowering plants continue to serve as inspiration in our myths and legends, in the fine and decorative arts, and in literary works of prose and poetry. Flowers seduce us—and animals, too—through their myriad shapes, colors, textures, and scents.

Here, he integrates fascinating stories about the many colorful personalities who populate the world of flowers, and the flowers and pollinators themselves, with a research-based narrative that illuminates just why there is, indeed, a Reason for Flowers.

About Stephen Buchmann

Stephen Buchmann, a pollination ecologist specializing in bees, is affiliated with the Departments of Entomology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. A fellow of the Linnean Society of London, he has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers and ten books, including The Forgotten Pollinators with Gary Paul Nabhan, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sue on October 18, 2015

This is a comprehensive look at the world of flowers, from their earliest known history and their constant interaction with humans dating from very ancient history, on to early civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, The Mayans, etc. The author is an expert on flowers and bees and shares this e......more

Goodreads review by Charlene on November 19, 2016

This book started out so strong. I thought it would be one of my all time favorites. I ended up hating it. Since it had such a strong start, I had a false sense of its ability to make a comeback once it got boring and downright annoying. I really should have quit after Chapter Three or Four, but I k......more

Goodreads review by Kirsti on September 22, 2020

Did you know that flowers are nature's advertisements? I'd never thought of it that way. Also, did you know that the stargazer lily was first invented/bred/whatever in 1978? I thought they had been around forever. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is older than the stargazer lily. This is informative......more

Goodreads review by Bfisher on May 04, 2016

This book discusses some interesting aspects of flowers; in particular, how flowers are pollinated and their relationships with pollinators (the author is an entomologist), flower breeding, the global flower business, flowers in cooking, floral essences in perfumes, flowers in culture and flowers in......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on December 04, 2019

As a florist, this book gave me millions of anecdotal trivia, which I hope to be able to recite at necessary times in the future. It is an all-encompassing look at how flowers have come into our lives, almost always for the better and, in the end, they are possibly using us as much as we are using t......more