The Anthropologist's Botany: How Plants Created Humans. Flowers and Berries

In this book the author invites you on a journey through the world of dicot plants—from the most ancient lineages such as the Amborellaceae and water lilies, to majestic magnolias, fragrant bay laurels, and the diversity of the rose family.

By looking at their origins, evolution, and centuries-long relationships with humans, he reveals unexpected connections: how spices helped drive the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, why poisons often became medicines, and how the outlines of flowers and fruits were reflected in culture, myths, and even political symbols.

You will learn:

– why pepper and cinnamon sometimes changed the course of history more than military campaigns;

– how parasitic plants and ant partners form complex and astonishing communities;

– what links grapes, the human gene for alcohol dehydrogenase, and enduring traditions of civilizations;

– how botanical misunderstandings led to epidemics, and how ancient plants became signs of gods and power.

The text is vivid and imaginative, with historical digressions, anthropological observations, and subtle irony. The book will interest not only biologists and anthropologists, but everyone who wants to see in familiar plants—from buttercups to durians—a captivating chronicle of nature and the human world influencing each other.