Bibliography of Natural History Books and Essays
from Herbarium list serve, November 2009

Updated 19 March 2010. Click here for archived messages in this thread.

Books

  1. Alcock, John. 2005. An enthusiasm for Orchids: Sex and Deception in Plant Evolution. 320 pages. Oxford University Press.
  2. Attenborough, David. 1995. The Private Life of Plants. Princeton University Press. 320 pages.
  3. Balick, Michael J., and Paul Alan Cox. 1997. Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany. W.H. Freeman & Company. 228 pages.
  4. Beekman, E.M. (ed.). 1981. The Poison Tree: Selected Writings of Rumphius on the Natural History of the Indies. The University of Massachussetts Press.
  5. Browning, Frank. 1999. Apples. North Point Press. 256 pages.
  6. Buchmann, Stephen L. and Gary Paul Nabhan with illustrations by Paul Mirocha. 1997. The Forgotten Pollinators. Island Press. 312 pages.
  7. Burger, William C. 2006. Flowers: How They Changed the World. Prometheus Books. 316 pages.
  8. Davis, Wade. 1997. One River. Simon & Schuster. 544 pages.
  9. Encott, Tim. 2005 (paperback edition). Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid. 304 pages. Grove Press.
  10. Foster, Alan Dean. 1987. Midworld. Del Rey. [FICTION]
  11. Gollner, Adam Leith. 2008. The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession. Scribner. 288 pages.
  12. Halle, Francis. 2002. In Praise of Plants. Timber Press, Inc. 334 pages.
  13. Heiser, Charles B. 1985. Of Plants and People. University of Oklahoma Press. 252 pages.
  14. Hobhouse, Henry. 2005. Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind. Counterpoint. 400 pages.
  15. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. 2003. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Oregon State University Press. 168 pages.
  16. Koeppel, Dan. 2007. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. Hudson Street Press. 304 pages.
  17. Leopold, Aldo. 1990. A Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books. 320 pages.
  18. Lewin, Ralph A. 1978. The biology of Algae and other verses. 106 pages. University Press of America / Boxwood Press.
  19. Maloof, J. E. 2005. Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest. University of Georgia Press.Athens, GA
  20. Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 1988. Where Have All the Wildflowers Gone? Macmillan Publishing Company. 239 pages.
  21. Moran, Robbin C. 2009. A Natural History of Ferns. Timber Press, Inc. 302 pages.
  22. Nabhan, Gary Paul with illustrations by Paul Mirocha. 1986. Gathering the Desert. University of Arizona Press. 209 pages.
  23. Niven, Larry. 2003. The Integral Trees. 480 pages. Del Rey. [FICTION]
  24. Orlean, Susan. 2000. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession. Ballantine Books. 320 pages.
  25. Overy, Angela. 1997. Sex in Your Garden. 120 pages. Fulcrum Publishing.
  26. Pavord, Anna. 2005. The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. 480 pages.
  27. Plotkin, Mark J. 1994. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest. Penguin Press. 328 pages.
  28. Pollan, Michael. 2002. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. Random House. 304 pages.
  29. Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Press. 464 pages.
  30. Reveal, James L. 1992. Gentle Conquest: The Botanical Discovery of North America. Fulcrum Publishing. 160 pages.
  31. Sabbagh, Karl. 2000. A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud. 276 pages. Farrar Straus Giroux.
  32. Sacks, Oliver. 1998. The Island of the Colorblind. Vintage Books. 336 pages.
  33. Sacks, Oliver. 2005. Oaxaca Journal. National Geographic. 160 pages.
  34. Schilthuizen, Menno. 2001. Frogs, Flies and Dandelions: Speciation-The Making of Species. Oxford University Press. 256 pages.
  35. Silvertown, Jonathan. 2008. Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity. University Of Chicago Press. 202 pages.
  36. Silvertown, J. 2009. An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds. University of Chicago Press. 224 pp.
  37. Steele, Arthur R. 1964. Flowers for the king, the expedition of Ruiz and Pavon and the Flora of Peru. Duke University Press.
  38. Stewart, Amy with illustrations by Briony Morrow-Cribbs. 2009. Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities. Algonquin Books. 223 pages.
  39. Stewart, Amy. 2008. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful. Algonquin Books. 320 pages.
  40. Stuart, David. 2004. Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change Our Lives. Harvard University Press. 208 pages.
  41. Tallamy, Douglas W. 2007. Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants
  42. Ward, Bobby J. 2005 (paperback edition). A Contemplation upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth and Literature. 447 pages. Timber Press, Inc.

Essays

  1. Anderson, Edgar. 1955. A Nice Quiet Evening with a Potato. Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin 43: 50-53.
  2. Eiseley, Loren. 1959. How Flowers Changed the World. The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. Vintage Books.
  3. Gage, Sarah. 2005. Somewhere Over the Herbarium: A Botanist Looks at the Movies. Botanical Electronic News #342.
  4. Leopold, Aldo. 1990. Draba. Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books.
  5. Leopold, Aldo. 1990. Good Oak. Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books.
  6. Leopold, Aldo. 1990. Smoky Gold. Sand County Almanac. Ballantine Books.
  7. Wandersee, James H. and Elisabeth E. Schussler. 2001. Toward a Theory of Plant Blindness. Plant Science Bulletin 47(1): 2-9.