"A lion sleeps in the hot desert in the shadow of a furry fir… A white bear wanders along the ice ridges among… thorny cacti. A pine by the shores of tropical Amazonia, a palm tree in the snowy tundra… But this is sheer nonsense! It’s just like in Korney Chukovsky’s fairy tale “Confusion”: ‘Pigs started squealing, kittens started snuffling.’ It can’t be! That’s right— it can’t be. It just can’t—be!" But what about how it really is? How everything works in the amazing world of plants? Why can one live where it’s cold, while another lives where it’s hot? Why do some plants form forests, and others—steppes? About plant zones of the Earth and much more related to the life of plants tells the geographer, scientist, and journalist Yakov Margolin. He tells vividly, imaginatively—like two incredibly curious grandchildren, Sanya and Vitya, are sitting right beside you listening. You listen and you’ll remember forever where “the monkey-bread tree” grows—or how, with the help of a gentle violet, you can find a zinc deposit… In short, we invite you on a journey with Curiosity and Imagination—and go wandering through the lands described in this book.