Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers

Certainly this isn't a book you would use as classroom material because of the style it is written in. But it is that style that makes it so wonderful. It is laced with beauty. The beauty of discovery about flowers and the beauty of the written word. Filled with eloquent language and vivid description, this is a must read for those who love both flowers and literature.

I found this little book extremely powerfull in changing the way I look at life....for the good mind you...it gave me an awareness and sensitivity to the natural world around me and an awe of what has come before and how we arrived here on this planet....Reccomend for readers of all ages...even children can grasp the concepts put forth here and will open the eyes just a little wider for all who read it!

ANATOMY OF A ROSE: EXPLORING THE SECRET LIFE OF FLOWERS is slightly mistitled. The book has a few things to say about roses--a section on the scent of roses and a section about the commercial interest in concocting a blue rose. The subtitle best describes the contents of Russell's book--the secret life of flowers.I'm a plant/gardening/nature enthusiast who is fairly well read but I learned a new things from Russell's book. For example, I did not know that the great taxonimist/plant classifier Linnaeus (born in 1707) acquired his love of and interest in plants from his relatives. Seems his great-grandmother was burned as a witch because she knew too much about plants. Linnaeus fared better probably partly owing to his ability to read and write about plants in Latin. Russell has done a very good job of reviewing, selecting, organizing and distilling the current thinking on flowers --including the projected 7th Extinction which has already begun and will continue over the next 100 years. Like Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, this little book warns the reader. Russell says only one percent of the known flowers have been fully studied, and many will become extinct before we understand them. Flowers hold the key to saving lives, promoting good health, and ensuring the survival of the planet as we know it. Russell tells of the discovery of a plant extract that can fight EBOLI; the discovery of Taxol in the fungus of trees cut down for the Taxol in their bark (the implication is that a really smart person would harvest the Taxol, not kill the goose that lays the golden egg!!); and the uses of many of other plants for medicinal purposes. Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to take an interest in preserving the wilderness--or at least preserving it for their uses.The jury is still out on the affect of gentically engineered plants on other life forms. Gentically engineered corn has been empirically linked to the demise of Monarch Butterfly and too date it is not "off the hook" as another reviewer suggests, however, the "not knowing" is clearly an issue.We have much to learn from the flowering plants. I recommend this book to any one who wants to become familiar with the current outlook for plants as well as the history of plants and their role in evolution. You don't need to be a botonist to understand Russell's clearly written and elegantly told story of the flowers and their connection to our own lives.

I thought I knew all the basics about flowers, but no. This book is packed with vivid images and great stories. It's full of surprises. The author combines a deep love of flowers, in-depth scientific knowledge and a wonderful sense of humor. A real gem.

Readers interested in the botany of flowers will enjoy Anatomy Of A Rose, a fine study, which examines how the plants evolved, survive, and how they interact with their environments. Roses aren't the only plants to be studied in this thoughtful presentation: all manner of flowers are considered in a lively tone blending science, scholarship and descriptive phrases.