Flowers: How They Changed the World

FLOWERS: How They Changed the World WILLIAM C. BURGER
Flowering plants provide energy for other living things and are Earth's most significant biomass. This book recounts such impacts and describes flowers' distinctive characteristics and their evolutionary histories. Burger analyzes the fundamental purpose of flowers and why plants spend so much energy on their blooms. The short answer to both questions is sex. The author, botany curator emeritus at the Field Museum in Chicago, also describes genetically diverse species and the symbiotic relationships between plants and fungi, pollinators, and seed-dispersing animals. Sections of the book delve into everyday threats and the defense mechanisms that plants have devised over time. The book also describes how plants have shaped the planet's weather patterns and the mix of primates living today Prometheus, 2006, 210 p., hardcover, $23,00.