The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

The book that helped make Michael Pollan,theNew York Timesbestselling author ofCookedandThe Omnivores Dilemma,one of the most trusted food experts in America

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desiressweetness, beauty, intoxication, and controlwith the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankinds most basic yearnings. And just as weve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?