Weeds

Botanical

by Nina Edwards

We spray them, pluck them, and bury them under mulch; and we curse their resilience when they spring back into place. To most of us, weeds are a nuisance, not worth the dirt they are growing in. But the fact is weeds are a plant just like any other, and it is only we who designate them as a weed or not, as a plant we will dote over or one we will tear out of the earth with abandon. And as Nina Edwards shows in this history, that designation is constantly changing. Balancing popular history with botanical science, she tells the story of the lowly, but proud, weed.
 
As Edwards shows, the idea of the weed is a slippery one, constantly changing under different needs, fashions, and contexts. In a tightly controlled field of corn, a scarlet poppy is a bright red intruder, but in other parts of the world it is an important cultural symbol, a potent and lucrative pharmaceutical source, or simply a beautiful, lakeside ornament. What we consider a pest— Aristolochia Rotunda , or “fat hen”—was, in Neolithic times, a staple crop, its seeds an important source of nutrition. Sprinkled with personal anecdotes and loads of useful information, Weeds sketches history after history of the fashions and attitudes that have shaped our gardens, showing us that it is just as important what we keep out of them as what we put in, and that just because we despise one species does not mean that there haven’t been others whose very lives have depended on it.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 13, 2015

About the author

Nina Edwards is a freelance writer and the author of On the Button: The Significance of an Ordinary Item (2011), Weeds (Reaktion, 2015), Offal: A Global History (Reaktion, 2013) and Dressed for War: Uniform, Civilian Clothing and Trappings, 1914-1918 (2014). She lives in London.

Reviews

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the category of book as physical object this book would score highly. It is a beautifully produced small hardback, with high quality paper and lavishly illustrated in colour. Ah, if only the contents were as good.

The writing is good - the author can certainly write, but reading it is like listening to a bubbling stream - it quietly and calmly fills the time, but at the end you seem to know nothing more about the topic. My wife, who knows a thousand times more than me about plants described it as "erudite fluff". An apt description.

If you are looking for books as gifts for people who handle them but don't read too much this book (or others in the series) would be great. If you like gentle intelligent babbling then you may enjoy. If you actually are interested in the topic I expect there are better reads.

[Gordon Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a stream of consciousness exploration into side tangents and thoughts about weeds than a deep, informative study on the topic. Nothing wrong with that! I found it a pleasant read and an enjoyable journey. Writing was good and the media aspects very intentionally thought out.

[eliz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very superficial book full of promising crumbs of information that never go very deep or come together to form any kind of treatise. It's a nice physical book and a fine read but the lack of organization, substance, and meaningful flow was frustrating and made this short book a bit of a slog.