Common or Garden: Encounters with Britain’s Most Successful Wild Plants

£14.95

Common or Garden: Encounters with Britain’s Most Successful Wild Plants Author: Format: Hardback First Published: Published By: Profile Books Ltd
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Pages: 240 Illustrations and other contents: 60 b/w drawings Language: English ISBN: 9781800811447 Categories: , ,

It’s often imagined that rarity is special. We seek out uncommon plants or birds to tick them off our lists, but most of us overlook the extraordinary splendour of the species we encounter daily in the natural world. It’s these species – the most successful plants – that are truly interesting. In this new book, Ken Thompson sets out to chart Britain’s fifty-two most common wild plants and to explain the secrets of their success. What are their key characteristics? How do they thrive in different habitats? Where did they come from? What do their popular names – speedwell, buttercup, dog rose – mean? Common or Garden – stunningly illustrated by the artist Sarah Abbot – will open our eyes afresh to the everyday natural world.

Weight0.6 kg
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Excellent ... written in an enjoyably flowing and engaging style, with no little humour ...meticulously researched ... a fresh and insightful account of the flora that lives within walking distance of all our homes * British Wildlife * Being common is actually 'a rare and rather exceptional quality' ... We should value these familiar plants, Thompson writes, because they are the ones we have learnt to use as medicines, in cookery and incorporate into folklore. This charming books zips along at a breakneck pace, much enhanced by Sarah Abbott's jaunty illustrations * Daily Mail * A beautifully illustrated spotter's guide to Britain's most successful wild plants * Countryside *

Author Biography

Dr Ken Thompson teaches on the Kew Horticulture Diploma, and was for twenty years a lecturer in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. He writes regularly on gardening for various publications. He is the author of Where Do Camels Belong? and Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants.