The Wild Wisdom of Weeds

The Wild Wisdom of Weeds
Author: Katrina Blair
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1603585176

The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is the only book on foraging and edible weeds to focus on the thirteen weeds found all over the world, each of which represents a complete food source and extensive medical pharmacy and first-aid kit. More than just a field guide to wild edibles, it is a global plan for human survival. When Katrina Blair was eleven she had a life-changing experience where wild plants spoke to her, beckoning her to become a champion of their cause. Since then she has spent months on end taking walkabouts in the wild, eating nothing but what she forages, and has become a wild-foods advocate, community activist, gardener, and chef, teaching and presenting internationally about foraging and the healthful lifestyle it promotes. Katrina Blair’s philosophy in The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is sobering, realistic, and ultimately optimistic. If we can open our eyes to see the wisdom found in these weeds right under our noses, instead of trying to eradicate an “invasive,” we will achieve true food security. The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is about healing ourselves both in body and in spirit, in an age where technology, commodity agriculture, and processed foods dictate the terms of our intelligence. But if we can become familiar with these thirteen edible survival weeds found all over the world, we will never go hungry, and we will become closer to our own wild human instincts—all the while enjoying the freshest, wildest, and most nutritious food there is. For free! The thirteen plants found growing in every region across the world are: dandelion, mallow, purslane, plantain, thistle, amaranth, dock, mustard, grass, chickweed, clover, lambsquarter, and knotweed. These special plants contribute to the regeneration of the earth while supporting the survival of our human species; they grow everywhere where human civilization exists, from the hottest deserts to the Arctic Circle, following the path of human disturbance. Indeed, the more humans disturb the earth and put our food supply at risk, the more these thirteen plants proliferate. It’s a survival plan for the ages. Including over one hundred unique recipes, Katrina Blair’s book teaches us how to prepare these wild plants from root to seed in soups, salads, slaws, crackers, pestos, seed breads, and seed butters; cereals, green powders, sauerkrauts, smoothies, and milks; first-aid concoctions such as tinctures, teas, salves, and soothers; self-care/beauty products including shampoo, mouthwash, toothpaste (and brush), face masks; and a lot more. Whether readers are based at home or traveling, this book aims to empower individuals to maintain a state of optimal health with minimal cost and effort.

Plants for Human Survival and Medicine

Plants for Human Survival and Medicine
Author: Bikarma Singh
Publisher: New India Publishing Agency
Total Pages: 8
Release: 2019-07-05
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9387973514

This is build upon based on twenty-five excellent research articles and main focused plant species are Boswellia serrata, Butea monosperma, Colebrookea oppositifolia, Cymbopogon khasianus, Dendrophthe falcata, Dysoxylum binectariferum, Echinacea purpurea, Grewia asiatica, Picrorrhiza kurroa, Saussurea costus, Withania somnifera, Zanthoxylum armatum, different species of Aconitum and Panax, Ashtavarga groups (Habenaria intermedia, Habenaria edgeworthii, Malaxis acuminata, Malaxis muscifera, Lilium polyphyllum, Polygonatum verticillatum, Polygonatum cirrhifolium and Roscoea procera), and hundreds of potential life-saving plants used by different ethnic tribes of Himalaya as food, shelter and medicine in their day-to-day life. Various research studies and clinical trials mentioned in the book will add and contribute a lot in discovering quick leads for medicine formulations and products development. In addition to research suggestions and valuation of plants for humans contained within each of the articles, an introduction section emphasizes particular research avenues for attention in the drug development programmes. As the reader will note, these compilations represent a wide collection of views, reflecting the diversity of sciences and interests of thousands of ideas that enabled thoughtful deliberations from a wide range of scientific perspectives.

Lessons from Plants

Lessons from Plants
Author: Beronda L. Montgomery
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-04-06
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0674259394

An exploration of how plant behavior and adaptation offer valuable insights for human thriving. We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don’t just passively provide. They also take action. Beronda L. Montgomery explores the vigorous, creative lives of organisms often treated as static and predictable. In fact, plants are masters of adaptation. They “know” what and who they are, and they use this knowledge to make a way in the world. Plants experience a kind of sensation that does not require eyes or ears. They distinguish kin, friend, and foe, and they are able to respond to ecological competition despite lacking the capacity of fight-or-flight. Plants are even capable of transformative behaviors that allow them to maximize their chances of survival in a dynamic and sometimes unfriendly environment. Lessons from Plants enters into the depth of botanic experience and shows how we might improve human society by better appreciating not just what plants give us but also how they achieve their own purposes. What would it mean to learn from these organisms, to become more aware of our environments and to adapt to our own worlds by calling on perception and awareness? Montgomery’s meditative study puts before us a question with the power to reframe the way we live: What would a plant do?

The Humane Gardener

The Humane Gardener
Author: Nancy Lawson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2017-04-18
Genre:
ISBN: 1616896175

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

The Secret Life of Plants

The Secret Life of Plants
Author: Peter Tompkins
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 006287442X

"Once in a while you find a book that stuns you. Its scope leaves you breathless. This is such a book." — John White, San Francisco Chronicle Explore the inner world of plants and its fascinating relation to mankind, as uncovered by the latest discoveries of science. In this truly revolutionary and beloved work, drawn from remarkable research, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cast light on the rich psychic universe of plants. The Secret Life of Plants explores plants' response to human care and nurturing, their ability to communicate with man, plants' surprising reaction to music, their lie-detection abilities, their creative powers, and much more. Tompkins and Bird's classic book affirms the depth of humanity's relationship with nature and adds special urgency to the cause of protecting the environment that nourishes us.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
Author: Peter Wohlleben
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2017-08-24
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0008218447

Sunday Times Bestseller‘A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement’ Charles Foster Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September) Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?

The Biology of Human Survival

The Biology of Human Survival
Author: Claude A. Piantadosi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2003-09-11
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190290021

The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior and biology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.

Plant Life under Changing Environment

Plant Life under Changing Environment
Author: Durgesh Kumar Tripathi
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 1014
Release: 2020-04-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128182059

Plant Life under Changing Environment: Responses and Management presents the latest insights, reflecting the significant progress that has been made in understanding plant responses to various changing environmental impacts, as well as strategies for alleviating their adverse effects, including abiotic stresses. Growing from a focus on plants and their ability to respond, adapt, and survive, Plant Life under Changing Environment: Responses and Management addresses options for mitigating those responses to ensure maximum health and growth. Researchers and advanced students in environmental sciences, plant ecophysiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, nano-pollution climate change, and soil pollution will find this an important foundational resource. Covers both responses and adaptation of plants to altered environmental states Illustrates the current impact of climate change on plant productivity, along with mitigation strategies Includes transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and ionomic approaches