Review: Botany For Gardeners by Brian Capon

Title: Botany For Gardeners
Author: Brian Capon
Publisher: Timber Press

In Botany For Gardeners, A former professor of botany explains in clear, simple terms, the life of plants as it relates to gardening.

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The secret life of plants fascinates me.

I’ve always been amazed at the power of the seed: a mighty Oak tree grows from a small acorn buried by a squirrel; a tiny Morning Glory seed becomes a 12-foot vine; flowers left undisturbed seed every fall and eventually colonize vast swaths of open land.

Brian Capon, former professor of botany at California State University, explains the life of plants simply enough in Botany For Gardeners that anyone with a middle school science education will understand it. The book is packed with excellent photographs and illustrations which help to illuminate the science and make it less intimidating for those who never took a botany class.

Some of the questions Botany For Gardeners Answers:

• Why and how the leaves of a plant follow the arc of the sun?
• What are those really fine hairs on plant stems are for?
• How are the rings in the wood of a tree are formed?
• Why does pruning the tip of a branch force shoots from the side of a branch?
• Why do certain plants shed their leaves in the fall?

In Botany For Gardeners, Capon answers those questions and many more. At various points in the book, Capon explains how completely dependent human life is on the plant kingdom: From the biosphere comes the paper to write our notes and print our books; the lumber to build our homes and ships; the purification of the air we breathe; fibers to make our clothing; elements to create our medicine; and of course, the plant kingdom furnishes much of our food.

“Out of the vast array of plants that populate our planet, only about 2000 species are estimated to have been used by humans as food. Of these, forty species are listed among today’s major food sources; and of these, a mere fifteen species are considered THE plants upon which the human race completely depends.”

Brian Capon, Botany For Gardeners.

If we understand the mechanisms by which our plants endure, we can better understand the reasons they may or may not flourish in our gardens and on our farms. Botany For Gardeners should definitely be in your gardening library.