The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora

by Michael Largo

David Attenborough meets Lemony Snicket in The Big Bad Book of Botany, Michael Largo’s entertaining and enlightening one-of-a-kind compendium of the world’s most amazing and bizarre plants, their history, and their lore.

The Big, Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild, wonderful, and weird plants. Some are so rare, they were once more valuable than gold. Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities, including the power to turn a person to stone. Others have been used by assassins to kill kings, and sorcerers to revive the dead. Here, too, is vegetation with astonishing properties to cure and heal, many of which have long since been lost with the advent of modern medicine.

Organized alphabetically, The Big, Bad Book of Botany combines the latest in biological information with bizarre facts about the plant kingdom’s oddest members, including a species that is more poisonous than a cobra and a prehistoric plant that actually “walked.” Largo takes you through the history of vegetables and fruits and their astonishing agricultural evolution. Throughout, he reveals astonishing facts, from where the world’s first tree grew to whether plants are telepathic.

Featuring more than 150 photographs and illustrations, The Big, Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating, fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Plants, Biology, Gardening, Science Nature

419 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 5, 2014

About the author

Michael Largo is an expert on the anomalous ways of American dying. He is the author of The Portable Obituary (a Bram Stoker Award Finalist), Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die (winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction), and three novels. He was the former editor of New York Poetry and the researcher/archivist for the film company Allied Artists. The son of an NYPD narcotics detective, Largo was the owner and founder of the landmark NYC East Village, St Marks Bar & Grill during the early 80s, where he served an eclectic clientele, including Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Larry Rivers, and Keith Richards, to name a few, allowing an insider’s look and unusual vantage to observe both genius and heroin--in all its deviations--and its impact on contemporary culture.

Michael Largo has been collecting statistics and information on the American way of dying for over a decade. He is a member of The Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America amd Horror Writers of America, and The American Historical Association.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - 20%.

I wanted to like this book. I'm a plant biology student, but enjoy pop science books about plants because there is so much interesting stuff about interesting plants out there that I will never get to study. Unfortunately, 'bad' might be the operative term with this book. I was only halfway through the letter A (the book is composed of short articles about different plants, organized alphabetically) before I spotted an error. Largo claims that genetically modified alfalfa contains a chemical found in Round Up, which somehow then confers resistance to the herbicide sprayed on neighboring fields. Huh? That makes no sense. Genetically modified alfalfa, like GM soybeans and corn, has an inserted gene that provides resistance to Round Up, so it doesn't die when farmers spray herbicide over the field to kill the weeds. Yet, without apparently understanding even the basic science (seriously, it took me five minutes to look it up just now) behind genetically engineered alfalfa, Largo recommends not eating it.

I started flipping around at that point. Largo totally mangles fern life cycles, includes several fungi (actually more closely related to animals than plants), makes some odd claims about gymnosperms and elderberries...and so on. Apparently there was no fact checker, and the author couldn't be bothered to use good sources for his info. The result is a rather sloppy mishmash of botany with a little history and trivia tossed in. Some of the illustrations are nice, but they are uneven in quality.

Unsurprisingly, the more I knew about a given subject, the more easily I could spot inaccuracies. So if you know nothing about plants, you might well enjoy this book, but you will also come away with quite a lot of bad information. I appreciate the effort to make botany accessible, but I think you'll be much better off with Amy Stewart's Drunken Botanist or Wicked Plants.

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

While Michael Largo's The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora is definitely penned in a decently engaging and interesting enough manner, well, after noticing already four what I would personally consider as rather major factual mistakes by the time I had arrived only at the letter C (and since as The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora is organised alphabetically, there were of course still twenty-four letter sections to peruse), I decided to quit and find something better and less filled with likely and probable errors for my reading pleasure (for if there is one thing that I absolutely CANNOT STAND, that would indeed be non fiction books with sloppy research and obvious mistakes).

Now I am indeed NOT and NEVER will be either a professional or even an amateur botanist and thus I can actually also not in any manner be totally sure and confident as to whether most of the floral, as to whether the botanical and biological information presented by Michael Largo in The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora demonstrates generally sound scientific research and true, correct and also contemporary, current information and plant details (but indeed, I have certainly noticed that most of the critical online reviews of The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora by both amateur and semi-professional plant experts, and there are definitely a very goodly number of these reviews present, do tend to claim that The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora is simply too full of and replete with botanical and scientific mistakes and gaffes to be taken in any way seriously and to be accepted as well-researched on a scientific level).

But yes, while I might not be a plant expert, I do indeed know (with my college and university level background in language and linguistics) something about basic word origins, I am aware of what constitutes good word etymologies. And indeed, it has definitely been rather majorly disconcerting to say the least that for example, for both the noun nettle and the noun beech, Michael Largo is in The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora definitely and certainly claiming erroneous etymologies, that he is using word origin stories that might sound reasonable on the surface but which even with a bit of research in any either online or dead tree etymological dictionary worth its linguistic salt would definitely show that nettle is actually not in any way directly related to needle even if the two nouns do look similar and both have similarly stinging qualities and that beech is in fact not based on the German noun for book but rather that the German noun for book, that das Buch (and in fact also the English noun book), stem directly from the noun die Buche which (guess what) does indeed mean beech in the German language (and that this has occurred because the Germanic runes, that the first basic letters used by the Germanic tribes, and not for actual reading and writing, but more for magic and divination, were in fact made of beech wood tablets and sticks, and the German word for a letter of the alphabet is called der Buchstabe, which in fact means a beech stick, in reference to those ancient Germanic runes).

And finally, even though I am as already stated above not in any manner a plant expert, I do indeed know for a fact that unlike what Michael Largo claims in his section on alfalfa, alfalfa has NOT been genetically modified to actually contain the weed-killer Round-Up, that instead, GM alfalfa has been genetically modified to be RESISTANT to Round-Up (a very big and substantial difference that in my humble opinion the author really should easily have noticed as ANY information found online on GM alfalfa clearly does state that GM alfalfa is resistant to Round-Up and not that it somehow contains Round-Up as part of its new genetic structure). Furthermore, while it is indeed true that amanita mushrooms are deadly poisonous, should they (and should the entire section on fungi itself) even be part of The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora, considering that funguses, that mushrooms, moulds etc. are not considered part of the plant kingdom and are now even often approached by biologists as more closely and genetically linked to animals than to plants?

Thus, even though I do perhaps feel a trifle guilty to be rating and negatively reviewing Michael Largo's The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora when I only intensely and meticulously read the book up to about the C section (albeit that I did indeed basically and briefly try to skim over the rest of The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora in a very cursory fashion), the fact that in the three sections I critically perused, I personally have found at least four major factual mistakes and that according to other reviews, these errors also do not cease as The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora progresses but seem to continue unabated, I can and will only consider a one star rating at best and to not recommend The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora except with absolutely major and massive reservations (and definitely not for educational purposes).

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a five star concept with a 1 star execution. This would be a wonderful bathroom book. Each chapter is about 2 pages long and has a snappy discussion of a plant's virtues, vices, and uses. Plus there are gee-whiz sidebars. But it is riddled with errors. Who edited this? I am not a botany expert or a grammarian, but how can you say birch flowers are "unique" because they produce both male and female flowers. LOTS of plants do this. Angle Trumpet did not "decide" to use bees for propagation. I suppose Largo is trying to pull in folks who have no interest in botany by humanizing plants, but he did not need to do this. Plants are interesting. A knowledgeable editor could have saved this book.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looked promising, but it's a mess. See botanist Jennifer Mo's review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for factual problems. And the style turned me off. 1.5 stars, which might be generous. Back it goes....

[Angie Reisetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a copy of this book through First Reads. It is mainly what it claims to be: an alphabetical, light-hearted listing of many interesting plants. The voice of the author is chatty, and occasionally witty. He generally mentions the growing conditions and description of the plants, as well as uses, both ancient and modern, pulling from world-wide traditions. The emphasis is on being broad, not deep.

My main complaint about this book is the lack of an index (or a table of contents of any detail). Plants come with many different names, and the name he categorized them under was often not the one I knew best. It's not really the sort of book you want to sit down and read cover to cover, although I did for the purpose of writing a review. It's more a fun book, to be accessed at random or when the fancy strikes. Perhaps read aloud in the living room or on a car trip. But an index is very useful for that kind of reading. I got an ARC -- maybe they'll add one?

The selection of plants is amusing and not all that scientific (he includes mushrooms, for instance). Most of the plants in here are either tasty, poisonous, or used to make drugs or alcoholic drinks. I think cannabis had the longest entry. Those characteristics, of course, make them more interesting. But he has jackfruit, for instance, but not apples. It's a fun selection, but not comprehensive.

[Douglas Busic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this. It looked like a fun, kooky, light read. It was bad, like walk out of the movie theatre bad.

The first piece on absinthe was ... a stretch in terms of facts. Then the lifespan on Brugmansia made me begin to question the breadth or depth of the writer's knowledge about this material.

His discussion on Fagus and how trees talk.... The way he discussed it....

Plain lazy "research" and writing, misleading, factually wrong, misrepresentations every other page.

At first I kept trying to forgive the writer , then I laughed at how ridiculously and obviously wrong the information was, and then I simply became enraged and stopped reading it all together.

Between Atropa and Areca I had resolved never to read this author again...and to warn others.

I sincerely suggest staying away from this book.

[Suzy Naschansky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the 'facts' in this book should be taken with a grain of salt.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid but novice gardener I found many errors in this book.

[Stan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining, interesting, frustrating, and exasperating. A really interesting work, but is it fact, myth, or anecdotal? It seems a large part fact with the rest left to the reader to uncomfortably figure out! His understanding seems superficial in areas and I found myself going to the internet often to see if my or the author's conceptions were wrong. It's disturbing that he as the author was occasionally ridiculously wrong in areas that I had some knowledge. How might I be misled in areas that were foreign to me?

Some blatant examples: He seems to consider table sugar and sucrose as two different things in the same sentence. What should be the chemical slaked lime he calls lime juice. He confuses distillation with infusion or extraction. Several times he seems to stumble over the distinction between evergreen and deciduous. To me a short lived (a few months) perennial doesn't make sense. The worst, for a factual author, though would be the blatant misunderstanding that a wasabi fire alarm won a 2017 Nobel prize! It actually won an Ig Nobel prize, which is a parody on trivial unusual achievements.

I finished the book because I owned it and it was entertaining to read for the history and stories but I have never felt so uncomfortable with a book purported to be fact. It should have been labeled as semi-factual folklore with obviously very little editorial oversight.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing book that I managed to finish out of sheer bloody-minded stubbornness. It is a really good concept for a book, but the author is by his own admission not an expert and that shows painfully throughout the book. It is full of factual errors and poorly edited. There are interesting tidbits in here, but given the tendency for speculation, folklore, and outright errors to be presented as facts, it is hard to be sure what is actually true and worth remembering.

[CrumbledCookie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess this is where the phrase dumbed -down would come into play. I went into this thinking i'd be learning something new, I wanted to learn facts, not half-truths and make-believe.

[Kyle Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

It would be a really great book if the author knew what the fuck he was talking about. Unfortunately there are too many errors to be able to recommend that anyone reads this

[Sierra Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and fun. I only wish the illustrations contained more detail and color.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the subject matter and feel like the author did a fair bit of research so perhaps thins should be a 3 star review. There was also a great collection of botanical fun facts and an interesting overview of ethnobotanical uses.

However it was pretty clear Largo’s plant knowledge is limited. ‘Facts’ and histories felt disjointed and careless in many plant profiles. The Books’s organization reflected this non-expert source in an aggravating way. This may only bother botanical snobs, But the haphazard organization by inconstant common names mixed with random scientific classifications lead to misleading characterizations of specific species and entire plant families.

In general the book felt scientifically irresponsible and in need of an editor. Preferably one that is expert in the subject matter.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michael Largo writes a collection of botanical themed essays as a general interest reference volume to inspire lay readers to become interested in botany. The essays are arranged alphabetically by subject name, there are many illustrations provided by Tropical Botanic Artists Collective artists, and a sources page is included too. While expert readers will be disappointed with the limited botanical information, and while other scholarly readers will be disappointed that for a 2014 book none of the sources were published after 2000, some readers seeking either amusing botanical trivia or fine drawings to marvel might be satisfied.

[Ami Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read! You learn some interesting facts and history about plants you already love, as well as plants you've never heard of!

[Bian is always tired · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inaccurate facts and variable quality in images.

[David Lawton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Combining David Attenborough's enthusiasm with Lemony Snicket's knowledge of botany. Riddled with errors - to be avoided!

[Satid · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is NOT a sufficiently informative book. Throughout the book, the author makes many "floating" statements that do not have further explanations about their validity. For example, the author says a lot about certain plants being used for various health purposes, many of which sound doubtful about their simultaneous veracity but he does not elaborate any further.

I remember he mentions a few times about Homeopathy but never mentions at all that, in the world of scientific medicine, homeopathy was already proven to be a useless pseudoscience that does not deliver any better medical results than placebos. Another example is about the plant Yopo. He says "Yopo is a hallucinogenic plant with psychoactive properties." and then also says "many know the plant as a good source of dietary calcium." without a care to explain HOW people can eat Yopo and avoid being hallucinated!?! I see this style of writing does not sufficiently inform readers. If I wrote this book, I would have done my best to provide more info on this point.

When I find at the end of the book that the author writes 5 different books so far that cover very diverse non-scientific and scientific areas, it dawns on me that it is a bad thing to write a botany book without knowing enough as botany is, at its core, very reliant on science. It appears to me the author is a Jack-of-all-trades type of writer which is not a good quality for writing science books.

For good books on plants, I like the style of the authors of these books: The Wisdom of Trees, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature, The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors. These are informative and artistically written.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book in a series of “big bad books” - the other book in the series is about beasts.

I am not really sure why the title says the word “bad” in it, as plants are not bad.

However, it is a big book, with over 300 pages of information. It includes information about 129 plants, classifying them by alphabetical order. There are a few paragraphs to a few pages of information about each plant. (He did include mushrooms and fungi that are not technically plants in the book, so it’s a tiny bit less than 129 actual plants.)

Usually, the author provides the area where the plant comes from and where it thrives now - though there are a few extinct plants in the book. He also usually discusses what the plants are used for (benefits to people & animals) and some historical tidbits. In some cases, well known specimens of the plant are cited, in others there is information on how to grow or propagate the plants. Since it is only a few paragraphs to a few pages about each plant it is just an overview and does not go deep into detail.

However if you are looking for an encyclopedia type book about a variety of plants, from oak trees, to broccoli, to sunflowers to zubrowka, this is a good book to read.

[Mary Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much potential, not enough editing. There was good information in this book, and lots of fun facts and plants that deserve attention, if nothing else than just for fun. Author has a nice light and causal way of writing. However, there was a lot that made me actively cringe. Poorly defined (or undefined) botanical terms, misuse of botanical terms, unclear descriptions, and incorrect information all detracted heavily from my enjoyment. As a trained botanist, I knew it wouldn’t be very scholarly but I was surprised at how blasé he was with scientific terms. I wish I could edit a new edition with him!

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book to dip into….though I enjoyed reading it cover to cover….Remember that the author is not a botanist, so don’t expect a lot of plant science….you won’t find it. What is there is a lot of plant lore, from indigenous uses as food, medicine and spiritual aid to tales of plants that Judas hung himself on or that were once human and were transformed by the gods, this book is full of interesting and fun facts and stories.

Keep in. Ind, though, that many plants are powerful medicines and you should take the author’s casual recommendations to use them for this or that ailment with an accompanying dose of research and Dr.’s advice

[Hannah McLear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoiler : it's about plants.
Ok, so, I really like plants(not the drug kind), and therefore, since this book is about plants(not the drug kind) , I really like this book! It's informational and it's about a topic that really interests me- plants. There's not really a plot just because it's solely an informational book but it's probably my favorite one that I've read so far in that category. I bought it for 13 dollars at Barnes and Noble. (A steal) so if you're into plants, I'd really recommend it.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largo covered such a wide range of topics that at times I ended up wishing he had narrowed it down a bit more. He did sections on the compound psilocybin and mushrooms but then at other times would focus on to one specific type of ivy. It meant that some topics seemed to get greatly condensed, at least in comparison. It was still delightful to read and chock full of fun facts regarding all different types of plants. I really enjoyed reading about the histories of so many botanical discoveries and how they intersect(ed) with other areas of life.

[Heather]

I knew I had to tackle this book differently. Because it's basically like an encyclopedia of plants. So I read random entries throughout the day at recess. Just random whatever I opened up to whatever seemed interesting. And then at night I would start from a and then I would hit a portion of completed ones. So I felt very accomplished in this. I did enjoy this book. I'm glad I read it the way that I did. Various entries made for interesting discussion

[Devon Flaherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are not really meant for kids, but I found them to be a fun resource when studying botany and zoology. We referenced them occasionally, so I didn’t end up purchasing them (just got them from the library), but I wouldn’t mind having them on the bookshelf. They could be better, but a great idea.

[Allison Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this was going to be a long time read....nope! This encyclopedia-like book of plants and their facts and lore went really quick. Honestly though it kinda made me want to try all the drugs (plants used ceremoniously). 🤷‍♀️ It was actually entertaining and I think I’m going to pick up a few more from this author.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light but interesting read into various plants across the world. Some are quite common like the tomato. Others are of the more rare and deadly side. However the other reviews may offer a better insight into the book as I don't know enough about all these plants to catch the errors that are apparently abundant throughout.

[Kenneth Watrous · Rating 1 out of 5]

i got this book from my local library as i am a high-school student looking to have a career in the sciences. and i have been bamboozled, hurt, tricked, and betrayed. my youthful heart has been STABBED. the cover looked promising but i found myself ILL to find out that the monster, Michael largo, pulled most of information he placed into this book out of his ASS. i have my eyes on you largo…

[Katy Kunkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way he writes the entries for all the plants in this book kept me entertained. I like books where I can be educated on a topic while remaining focused and entertained and this did that for me. If you want to learn about random plants from A-Z names, this is the perfect book to learn about various plant and all the things they can be used for!!