Anatomy Of A Rose: Exploring The Secret Life Of Flowers

If you love flowers and good writing you will love this book. Just enchanting and so many things I didn't know about the life of flowers. Totally geeked out on this book.

Wonderfully descriptive of how/why flowers attract. Packages so much science in beautiful and thoughtful writing. You will come to understand how flowers are essential to your very being! They are not just "pretty faces."

great

This irritated me because it had inaccuracies. For instance, the author says; "THE FOSSILS OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN FLOWERS are about 120 million years old. Bees have been around much longer than that, and bees probably had color vision long before the appearance of flowers." (page 19 in the Kindle version)This is simply inaccurate. Bees are around 100 million years old. That's easily googled. I would post a link but Amazon won't let me do so in a review.So, reading a non-fiction science book filled with mistakes is simply a waste of time.

Anatomy of a Rose by Sharman Apt Russell was a worthwhile reading experience. I was apprehensive and trepidatious when I started the book. I was concerned as to whether or not botanical information would be interesting and consuming. My initial assumption was incorrect. Russell had a beautiful way of constructing this book. The book was not perceived as a plant/science textbook because it read beautifully as a novel. It was apparent that Russell’s narrative mode was stream of consciousness. Her writing appropriately flowed from plant science information to symbolic connections to her own personal experiences. For example, she used humans, insects, and wavelengths of light to describe blind voyeurism. Russell states that humans see all colors in the visible light spectrum; whereas bees see ultraviolet light and colors in the visible spectrum, with the exception of red. Based on this information, plants are seen in completely different aspects based on the organisms that views them. She shows that all organisms have their own perspective. One perspective is not right or wrong. However, the visual of a plant is only the end result of many processes. These processes, and the visual aspect of plants, all contribute to the beauty of plant life. Therefore, organisms, like humans and insects, are blind voyeurs to plants because they only see a fraction of what they actually do.There was only one weakness I found to this book, which was the fact that there was usually a disconnect between each chapter. The chapters did not continue like a usual book. It was noticeable that each chapter focused on a different aspect of plant life and plant anatomy. Therefore, there was usually only one main theme discussed in each chapter. However, Russell made up for this by making larger connections in the book overall.I am currently enrolled in a seed plants course, and I believe I have a basic background of plants. Because of this, I found the information presented in this book to be accurate. Russell had appropriate references, and explained the information in a proper manner. Additionally, I found the illustrations in the book to assist with the anatomical and structural information related to plants. Based on this information, I think this book is applicable to all audiences. If you are a person interested in botany, this will help reaffirm basic structures and concepts of plants. The question is, will this book appeal to members of the general public that do not have a strong background in plants? Russell did an outstanding job of explaining the scientific terms. And, as I mentioned before, this book was not a science textbook. Therefore, I would recommend this book to friends, regardless of whether or not they had a strong background in plant science. Sometimes we take flowering plants for granted. Without these plants, the world would not be as colorful and beautiful. Reading this book will remind you that plants are everywhere, and without plants life would not be possible.

When the prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven, drops of his sweat fell to earth and turned into roses. Apollo, the sun god, transformed a youth he coveted into a hyacinth after Zephyr, the god of the west wind, killed him. The Incas worshipped the sunflower as a symbol of their sun god.Russell's fine book explains not only how all cultures and peoples have elevated flowers to the realm of the spiritual but also how flowers survived the rampaging dinosaurs and provided our earliest ancestors with their basic physical and spiritual needs: our Neanderthal ancestors buried their dead with blue hyacinth, yellow groundsel, knapweed and yarrow. Even then, we were looking for beauty and something higher than ourselves.Russell shows us how the physics of beauty allows flowers to serve nature's needs in ways much more miraculous than the more mundane ones of Moses parting the Red Sea or the Greek legend of the North Wind fertilizing wild mares. Such manifestations of the divine are, the author explains, commonplace in the temporal world of flowers.Russell, for example, shows how flowers are literally the fruit of life. Their pollen is 16-30 percent protein, 1-10 percent fat, and 1-7 percent starch. Because pollen has no sugar and contains a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, bees are on to a very good thing. So too are the flowers because the bees and similar insects spread their seeds far and wide. The same applies to such unattractive specimens as the skunk cabbage, the corpse flower and the stinking goosefoot. Russell's clear prose paints out their survival strategies as eloquently as he does those of other, more beguiling flowers.Although the fable of the flowers and the bees is the most well known one of mutual dependence and coevolution in nature, Russell lists a breath taking variety of other ones, such as the yucca and yucca moth, which are so perfectly attuned to each other that they remind us of mating swans.However, as a first rate writer like Russell knows, no good love story is complete without a crown of thorns. Because so many animals like to eat entire plants and not just suck their nectar or collect their pollen, the flowers have to develop effective defense shields. Typical of these is the way the fungus gnat is lured into a trap by flowers that mimic fungi. When the unfortunate gnat leaves the flower covered in pollen, the eggs are left behind to die of eventual starvation. This means there will be fewer gnats in the future to harass the "defenseless" flowers. That is not the only trick the flowers have up their collective sleeves. They use one animal variety to protect them from another variety and then they develop special chemicals to protect themselves against their protectors. And they are past masters of chemical warfare.Russell's highly recommended book gives countless other examples of the fox being outfoxed. The water lily, for example, offers a banquet Roman in scope and delight to a wide variety of bees, hoverflies and beetles. Then, like the most treacherous lover, it tricks them into serving its own selfish own needs. The water lily is only one of the many examples of particularly strong iron fists being enveloped in very alluring velvet gloves that the author gives.Perhaps we too, who are so foxy with nature, might end up in a trap of our own making. After regaling us with a lavish banquet that even the water lily might envy, Russell explains that there will be more environmental changes in this century than at any time since the dinosaurs became extinct tens of millions of years ago. Although we might cause the symphony of life and evolution to end sooner rather than later, Russell's fine book makes the point that flowers are probably more adapted for what lies ahead than we are. A cautionary tale, in other words, within a most pleasurable read.

This is the most lush and gorgeous book. Russell wears her research and erudition lightly, and writes a book about the pharmacology and morphology of plants as if she is writing a song of praise, a novel with a delicious cast of characters and a page-turning plot, a passionate political/ideological credo and a torrid piece of erotica! All in one book.I can't recall a piece of scientific writing this exciting, which had me laughing out loud at some points and moved to tears at the wonder of it all at others.What a glorious and rich world we live in! The flowers in my local park have never seemed more potent and thrilling!

A few enjoyable tidbits. So-so writing and not much substance. Go with Peter Bernhardt's The Rose's Kiss.

Absolutely loved this book. Very informative and enjoyable to read. Sharman Apt Russell has a wonderful sense of humour.

Perceptive , articulate, poetic.