Weeds

Mabey, Richard, Richar

£10.99

From the scourge of poison ivy to the milder nuisance of the stinging nettle, Mabey considers the ‘botanical thugs’ that destroy whole ecosystems, as well as those that thrive miraculously, greening over war zones and refuse tips, repairing through nature the dereliction we create.

Out of stock

Publish Date: 08/03/2012
ISBN: 9781846680816 Category: Tag:

Description

Ever since the first human settlements 10,000 years ago, weeds have dogged our footsteps. They are there as the punishment of ‘thorns and thistles’ in Genesis and , two millennia later, as a symbol of Flanders Field. They are civilisations’ familiars, invading farmland and building-sites, war-zones and flower-beds across the globe. Yet living so intimately with us, they have been a blessing too. Weeds were the first crops, the first medicines. Burdock was the inspiration for Velcro. Cow parsley has become the fashionable adornment of Spring weddings.Weaving together the insights of botanists, gardeners, artists and poets with his own life-long fascination, Richard Mabey examines how we have tried to define them, explain their persistence, and draw moral lessons from them. One persons weed is another’s wild beauty.

Additional information

Weight 240 g
Dimensions 196 × 128 × 24 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

322

Language

English

Edition

Revised edition

Dewey

632.5 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K