In the Name of Plants: From Attenborough to Washington, the People behind Plant Names
Sandra Knapp, "In the Name of Plants: From Attenborough to Washington, the People behind Plant Names"
English | ISBN: 0226824306 | 2022 | 192 pages | PDF | 12 MB
English | ISBN: 0226824306 | 2022 | 192 pages | PDF | 12 MB
A vividly illustrated meeting with thirty plants and their inspiring namesakes
Shakespeare famously asserted that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and that’s as true for common garden roses as it is for the Megacorax, a genus of evening primroses. Though it may not sound like it, the Megacorax was actually christened in honor of famed American botanist Peter Raven, its name a play on the Latin words for “great raven.”
In this lush and lively book, celebrated botanist Sandra Knapp explores the people whose names have been immortalized in plant genera, presenting little-known stories about both the featured plants and their eponyms alongside photographs and botanical drawings from the collections of London’s Natural History Museum. Readers will see familiar plants in a new light after learning the tales of heroism, inspiration, and notoriety that led to their naming. Take, for example, nineteenth-century American botanist Alice Eastwood, after whom the yellow aster—
Read more