Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants [Hardcover]

“[A] witty and beguiling meditation on weeds and their wily ways….You will never look at a weed, or flourish a garden fork, in the same way again.”
—Richard Holmes, author ofThe Age of Wonder

“In this fascinating, richly detailed book, Richard Mabey gives weeds their full due.”
—Carl Zimmer, author ofEvolution

Richard Mabey, Great Britain’s Britain’s “greatest living nature writer” (London Times), has written a stirring and passionate defense of nature’s most unloved plants. Weedsis a fascinating, eye-opening, and vastly entertaining appreciation of the natural world’s unappreciated wildflowers that will appeal to fans of David Attenborough, Robert Sullivan’sRats, Amy Stewart’sWicked Plants, and to armchair gardeners, horticulturists, green-thumbs, all those who stop to smell the flowers.

The true story—and true glories—of the plants we love to hate

From dandelions to crabgrass, stinging nettles to poison ivy, weeds are familiar, pervasive, widely despised, and seemingly invincible. How did they come to be the villains of the natural world? And why can the same plant be considered beautiful in some places but be deemed a menace in others?

InWeeds, renowned nature writer Richard Mabey embarks on an engaging journey with the verve and historical breadth of Michael Pollan. Weaving together the insights of botanists, gardeners, artists, and writers with his own travels and lifelong fascination, Mabey shows how these botanical thugs can destroy ecosystems but also can restore war zones and derelict cities; he reveals how weeds have been portrayed, from the thorns and thistles of Genesis to Shakespeare,Walden, andInvasion of the Body Snatchers; and he explains how kudzu overtook the American South, how poppies sprang up in First Worllc