Wily Violets and Underground Orchids: Revelations of a Botanist [Paperback]

In this book, Peter Bernhardt takes us on a grand tour of the botanical realm, weaving engaging descriptions of the lovely shapes and intriguing habits of flowering plants with considerations of broader questions, such as why there are only six basic shapes of flowers and why the orchid family is so numerous and so bizarre. Everyone from amateur naturalists and gardeners to plant scientists will findWily Violets and Underground Orchidsa lively guide to botanical lore.

Peter Bernhardtis a professor of biology at St. Louis University and a research associate at both the Missouri Botanical Garden of St. Louis and the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Australia. He is the author ofNatural Affairs: A Botanist Looks at the Attachments between Plants and PeopleandThe Rose's Kiss: A Natural History of Flowers, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

Foreword by Peter H. Raven
PART ONE - ECCENTRIC ENVIRONS
1. Trees of Two Seasons
2. A Child's Garden of Gumnuts
3. A Country of Mistletoes
4. Prairie Days
PART TWO - THE FLORAL THEATER
5. The Forms of Flowers
6. Pollinating Possums
7. Beetles, Blossoms, and the Blood of Adonis
8. An Ancient Moth for an Ancient Flower
PART THREE - PORTRAITS IN CHLOROPHYLL
9. Royal Amazons
10. The Wily Violets
11. In the Shadow of Forest and Glacier
12. Hanging by Their Heels
PART FOUR - THOSE UNNATURAL FLOWERS
13. Lady's Wear
14. San Salvador's Urban Orchids
15. Orchidelirium
16. Charles Darwin and the Christmas Star
17. The Fiendish Orchid
18. Orchids in the Dark
Annotated Bibliography
Index

In this book, Peter Bernhardt takes us on a grand tour of the botanical realm, weaving engaging descriptions of the lovely shapes and intriguing habits of flowering plants with considerations of broader questions, such as why there are only six basic shapes of flowers and why the orchid family is so numerol<