reading recommendations from some of my favorite botany-related books.

Now for my first recommendation, I couldn't pick one of Amy Stewart's books, so I have

three of them. Amy Stewart is a science writer who typically writes about plants--she also

has a book Wicked Bugs which I don't own because I'm more of a plant person--but the first

of these is Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart, which is a really great, it's almost like

a reference, you could definitely read it through, but it's basically a history of plant

poisons, and their different uses. Ranging from food, to weapons, to famous people who

have died, all sorts of things. And it's actually a really gorgeous book. It's a really nice

hardback. I'm a book geek so I really like it for that. And it has really great illustrations.

The second of these is, the first one I read by her, is Flower Confidential and this is

the good, the bad and the beautiful of the cut flower industry around the world. It talks

about breeding blue roses, breeding the Stargazer Lily, which I mentioned in my last video,

how roses are cultivated and shipped from Ecuador, Guatamala, all around the world.

It's super interesting, super well-written, it's more of a narrative than a science book

which is something that I really love about it.

The third of these is The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart, her newest book, and similar

to Wicked Plants it's a really gorgeous hardback with great illustrations. And it is little

anecdotes, and each chapter or section is a different plant and how alcohol is derived

from it. So it's basically any alcohol you can think of is in here with back stories.

Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen, the collapse of the honey bee and the coming agricultural

crisis. It was published in 2008, so it's a little bit outdated in terms of talking

about colony collapse disorder, the disease or condition that was striking all of the

world's--or at least the United States'--bees a couple of years ago. It is a very great

book if you want to learn about how bees work and communication and hives; it's very great.

As you can see, I have lots of post-it notes in it, because plants and bees, both very

important. This is one of my absolute favorite books,

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. It's about Coastal Redwood research in Northern California

and how that started within the last couple of decades. And the men and women who started

that area of research. One of the first researchers, Steve Sillett, free-climbed into a redwood

canopy without any gear just to stand in the crown of a redwood, and it's believed that

he was one of, or the first man to stand in the crown of a redwood tree.

This is more of a practical recommendation, this is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, mostly

based in Northeastern America, I'm sure it reaches up a little bit into Canada. It's

what I've used in my plant systematics courses to identify plants. It's a really great, easy-to-use

guide, so even if you aren't a botanist and don't know that much about plants, you can

use it to identify stuff in your area. You basically need to be able to tell how many

petals a plant has, how its leaves are arranged, which will be explained to you in the book,

and what shape those leaves are, also explained to you in the book in terms of options. And

then it leads you through questions, so you figure out using pictures and descriptions

what plant it is you're looking at. And there you have it, some summer reading

recommendations if, like me, you have some down time right now. And if there's a particular

topic you're looking for a book on, drop a note in the comments and I'll see if I can

come up with a recommendation for you. Similarly, if you have any botany-related

questions leave those in the comments and I'll answer them in a future video.