Plant Ecology

Penguin Audio presents The Plant Messiah by Carlos Magdalena, read by Roy McMillan. Carlos Magdalena of Kew Gardens is not your average botanical horticulturist. He's a man on a mission to save the world's most endangered plants from ecological destruction and thieves hunting for wealthy collectors. He is a plant messiah. From the planet's tiniest waterlily - the Nymphaea thermarum - to Huarango trees with roots over 50 metres long, Carlos has a miraculous ability to bring breathtakingly beautiful plants back from the brink of extinction.

Myriam Gurba has lived in California her entire life, with its plants and soils, forests and ecology, immersing herself in the language of the landscape as refracted through the languages and memories of her ancestors. In Poppy State, California plants serve as structural anchors in a wildly inventive work of narrative nonfiction that is part botanical criticism, part personal storytelling, part study of place. Gurba traverses themes of language, power, ancestry, and California's ecology, in masterfully constructed sentences that seem to defy gravity.

Kann man Blumen essen? Warum stinken manche Bäume? Und wer hat im Park unter der Wiese gewühlt? Natur ist überall - auch in der Stadt! Mäuse, Hummeln, Kaninchen und manchmal sogar Waschbären sind deine Nachbarn. Flechten, Moose und Blumen finden in winzigen Spalten und Asphaltrissen ihren Lebensraum. Ganz in deiner Nähe warten kleine und große Abenteuer auf dich. Eine Kürbispflanze ziehen, Übernachten im Garten oder Tiere auf dem Bahnsteig beobachten.

There is endless wisdom in the medicinal practices of ancient civilizations. People who didn't have the opportunity to rely on modern technology were not capable of the same chances at longevity and health that we are in modern times. However, it is important to remember that the drugs we are using now are still in their infancy, and may come with more problems than solutions in some cases.