An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds

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Originally published online in "CAB Reviews," this volume makes available in printed form the reviews in plant sciences published during Similar ebooks. Jonathan Silvertown. At the heart of evolution lies a bewildering paradox. Natural selection favors above all the individual that leaves the most offspring—a superorganism of sorts that Jonathan Silvertown here calls the "Darwinian demon. Why then, if evolution favors this demon, is the world filled with so many different life forms? What keeps this Darwinian demon in check?

If humankind is now the greatest threat to biodiversity on the planet, have we become the Darwinian demon? Demons in Eden considers these questions using the latest scientific discoveries from the plant world. Readers join Silvertown as he explores the astonishing diversity of plant life in regions as spectacular as the verdant climes of Japan, the lush grounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the shallow wetlands and teeming freshwaters of Florida, the tropical rainforests of southeast Mexico, and the Canary Islands archipelago, whose evolutionary novelties—and exotic plant life—have earned it the sobriquet "the Galapagos of botany.

In novel and useful ways, he also investigates the current state of plant diversity on the planet to show the ever-challenging threats posed by invasive species and humans. Bringing the secret life of plants into more colorful and vivid focus than ever before, Demons in Eden is an empathic and impassioned exploration of modern plant ecology that unlocks evolutionary mysteries of the natural world.

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David Lee. Surrounded by the wonders of the jungle, Lee found his attention drawn to one plant in particular, a species of fern whose electric blue leaves shimmered amidst the surrounding green. Beginning with potent reminders of how deeply interwoven plant colors are with human life and culture—from the shifting hues that told early humans when fruits and vegetables were edible to the indigo dyes that signified royalty for later generations—Lee moves easily through details of pigments, the evolution of color perception, the nature of light, and dozens of other topics.

Through a narrative peppered with anecdotes of a life spent pursuing botanical knowledge around the world, he reveals the profound ways that efforts to understand and exploit plant color have influenced every sphere of human life, from organic chemistry to Renaissance painting to the highly lucrative orchid trade.

Andrew Isles Natural History Books

Everything that lives will die. A giant fungus found in Michigan has been alive since the Ice Age, while a dragonfly lives but four months, a mayfly half an hour. What accounts for these variations—and what can we learn from them that might help us understand, or better manage, our own aging?

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With The Long and the Short of It, biologist and writer Jonathan Silvertown offers readers a witty and fascinating tour through the scientific study of longevity and aging. Dividing his daunting subject by theme—death, life span, aging, heredity, evolution, and more—Silvertown draws on the latest scientific developments to paint a picture of what we know about how life span, senescence, and death vary within and across species. At every turn, he addresses fascinating questions that have far-reaching implications: What causes aging, and what determines the length of an individual life?

What changes have caused the average human life span to increase so dramatically—fifteen minutes per hour—in the past two centuries? The answers to these puzzles and more emerge from close examination of the whole natural history of life span and aging, from fruit flies, nematodes, redwoods, and much more.

The Long and the Short of It pairs a perpetually fascinating topic with a wholly engaging writer, and the result is a supremely accessible book that will reward curious readers of all ages. Lab Girl. Hope Jahren.

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Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment.

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All seeds on a plant have the same mother, but they do not all have the same father. What a plant cannot do for itself, it can often trick or bribe an animal into doing for it. Females with two copies of the same allele also have two-color vision, of course. The evidence, strangely enough, comes not from the present but from the past. He proposed that there must be some kind of hereditary factor for seed shape which could be transmitted, but remain hidden, and then re-emerge again in a later generation. Which colors a particular individual in such a population can see depends on which alleles it has. Via UChicago's free monthly ebook program.

Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution. An able guide with an eye for the unusual, Silver-town is happy to take readers on unexpected - but always interesting - tangents, from Lyme disease to human color vision to the Salem witch trials. But he never lets us forget that the driving force behind the story of seeds - its theme, even - is evolution, with its irrepressible habit of stumbling upon new solutions to the challenges of life.

Toon meer Toon minder. Recensie s Anyone who has ever marveled at the idea of a tree exploding from something as tiny as a seed will exalt in the beauty of this book. An Orchard Invisible practically spills over with interesting insights. Each of the first twelve chapters of this book tells a remarkable story, accompanied by well-chosen literary excerpts. All botanists will enjoy this tribute to seeds.

Andrew Isles Natural History Books

Silvertown's skills are in telling stories. Expect wonders, too In this book, Silvertown has produced a gem Read it as a gardener, scientist, food aficionado, historian, botanist, or naturalist, and you'll not be disappointed. Reviews Schrijf een review. Bindwijze: Paperback. Niet leverbaar. Two factors increase tick densities two years after a mast year. Initially, the large acorn crop concentrates deer and mice together, increasing the likelihood of transmission of ticks between them. Subsequently, mouse density increases, providing more hosts for juvenile ticks.

The most likely time for a human to catch Lyme disease is when frequenting the woods in the second season after a mast year e. Lyme disease is probably more common in the New England than formerly because the deer population has increased dramatically, helped by the food and shelter that the regenerated forests provide.

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With more deer about, more ticks complete their life cycle. Lyme disease also occurs in Europe, though it is less common there. With deer populations also exploding in parts of Britain, a rise in Lyme disease is a possibility, especially as more forests are planted. In mast years there is food everywhere, but betweentimes there is nothing.

Why do oaks and so many other forest trees, in the tropics as well as the temperate zone, vary their annual seed production so drastically from year to year? After all, masting has some obvious disadvantages.

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The story of seeds, in a nutshell, is a tale of evolution. From the tiny sesame that we sprinkle on our bagels to the forty-five-pound double coconut borne by the. Editorial Reviews. From School Library Journal. Just as a seed contains the ability to create a whole plant, the evolution of seeds can serve as a microcosm for.

Third, masting trees pass up potentially valuable opportunities to reproduce in the inbetween years. Or should we listen to the trees? Although trees appear to use climate to trigger synchronized seed production, climatic events cue mast years rather than driving them. The speed of the cars is determined by the driver in each vehicle. In Northern Hemisphere forests too, yearly seed crop variation is much more extreme than variation in the weather that cues it. Has nature blundered, or could masting have advantages? On the contrary, masting is one of those extraordinary phenomena of nature that is quite inexplicable without natural selection.

The answer is simple. Small seed crops are usually completely wiped out by seed-eaters, but a fair proportion of much larger crops survive, despite the hoards that are drawn to feed on them. Masting by trees has forced the evolution of countermeasures by animals.

intriguing facts, thoughts, and ideas based in the botanical world

Rodents store seeds, but the brevity of their lives means that many caches may not be recovered. Unless disabled before burial, these seeds can germinate, and the rodent that carried them away has, in the end, performed a service of dispersal for the tree in a failed attempt to provide for itself. This is an example of how evolution continually subverts the strategies of one species to the ends of another.

Migration is another recourse for starved seed-eaters, but a desperate one since seed crops may be synchronized over thousands of kilometers and so seed famines can be very widespread. Among some seed-infesting insects, another strategy is to wait out the intermast years as a dormant pupa inside the seed that has been their cafeteria and nursery. A neat trick if you can manage it. Insects that cannot do this have a problem, as illustrated by a weevil that infests pecan nuts.

The next year there are more casebearers, lots and lots of pecan weevils, but a pecan famine.