Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds: A Visual Plant Encyclopedia for Kids

Smithsonian Visual Encyclopedia

by D.K. Publishing

A unique guide to the extraordinary world of plants, from the smallest seeds to the tallest trees.

We couldn't live without plants. We need them for food, shelter, and even the air we breathe, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Why do thistles bristle with spines? How do some plants trap and eat insects? Did you know there are trees that are 5,000 years old? Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds explores the mysterious world of plants to find the answers to these and many more questions.

Each type of plant--such as a flowering plant, tree, grass, or cactus--is examined close up, with an example shown from all angles and even in cross section, to highlight the key parts. Then picture-packed galleries show the wonderful variety of plants on different themes, perhaps the habitat they grow in, a flower family, or the plants that supply us with our staple foods. But the book also takes a fun look at some truly weird and wonderful plants, including trees with fruits like a giant's fingers, orchids that look like monkey faces, seeds that spin like helicopters, and trees that drip poison.

So open this beautiful book and find out more about amazing Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Gardening, Reference, Childrens, Plants

192 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2019

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov]

What an amazing book!
The combination of the visually striking and very helpful illustrations coupled with a well-thought-out text worked for me.
I know that I will be keeping this volume near at hand.

[Nick D]

I had a book just liked this as a kid except it was about animals. this one one is all about plants and it might be even better. amazing pictures and variety of all types of creatures from the plant kingdom. Crazy orchids, parasitic plants, meat eating plants, flowers that mimic decaying flesh, fruits I've never heard of. a lot of fun to go through and perfect for kids.

[Ash]

Read it with my son and he loved it so much that he couldn't wait for me to read to him. He would pick it up and read it all by himself. A great resource about plants, trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds... everything to do with plant life.

[Stacy Renee (LazyDayLit)]

Used for our 2nd grade Science curriculum.

[Mrs. DL]

Very beginner-friendly, filled with lovely illustrations. It really grew on me.

[Chris]

A great early guide to plants for school age kids, but I enjoyed it too!

[James]

A unique guide to the extraordinary world of plants, from the smallest seeds to the tallest trees. We couldn't live without plants. We need them for food, shelter, and even the air we breathe, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Why do thistles bristle with spines? How do some plants trap and eat insects? Did you know there are trees that are 5,000 years old? Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds explores the mysterious world of plants to find the answers to these and many more questions. Each type of plant--such as a flowering plant, tree, grass, or cactus--is examined close up, with an example shown from all angles and even in cross section, to highlight the key parts. Then picture-packed galleries show the wonderful variety of plants on different themes, perhaps the habitat they grow in, a flower family, or the plants that supply us with our staple foods. But the book also takes a fun look at some truly weird and wonderful plants, including trees with fruits like a giant's fingers, orchids that look like monkey faces, seeds that spin like helicopters, and trees that drip poison. So open this beautiful book and find out more about amazing Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds.

[Charlotte S]

This is one of our favorite books that we used for our botany study. The pictures are BEA-U-TI-FUL! It's perfect if you want something in between an easy book for toddlers and a massive college textbook that makes your brain hurt. *stares at the wall* Just realized that is a very big range I just mentioned. *few seconds of silence* *finally concludes that it is simply a very good book and that anyone reading this should get it* But seriously, it has so much cool information and so many fun facts! Follow @bronteandwilder for more fun book recommendations!

[Erika]

This is such a fun book! There are SO many flowers, trees, etc. with close-up pictures and descriptions for each. I love how sections are separated such as flowers having sections for "living in water" and "meat-eating plants". This would be a great book in the classroom for students to explore on their own or I could incorporate certain parts of the book as we learn about them such as parts of a flower.

[Mauri]

Spent a little more time with this one as my knowledge of non-southwest US plants is pretty shallow. I've been taking in most of my non-fiction information via prose or podcast the last 15 years, so it was cool to see, like, the garden on the ISS, an old-growth redwood towering above its neighbors, and fern spores. (Also, a lot of things I thought had been invented by the designers of Breath of the Wild.)

[Autumn Kearney]

I love all of the DK Eyewitness books. They are sold individually, but together, they make up a set of small, encyclopedia-like books. The color photographs alone are worth the admission price. They are all so beautiful. This book brings me back to my days in horticulture. Living out west, I miss greenery.

[Janice]

Extremely informative about plants around the world. Great photography. All kinds of plants from trees to food plants. Taxonomy in the beginning. Tells about prehistory and how we know what we know.

Good for research.

[Mair]

Brilliant! Full of interesting facts. Visually easy to follow, well laid out with simple but informative text. Lots and lots of pictures, and a broad range of information, grouped together in categories which I loved as it made it very easy to understand. I love facts

[MK]

Why do plants and flowers have such a variety of colors and beautiful gradations, and why do they have such beautiful designs? I was impressed.

The second half of the book introduces natural foods from around the world, including tropical fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, and legumes.

[Abeer Arain]

Allah is Al-Aleem (The All-Knowing), and the more we read about our Almighty's created world, the more we are in awe of His Majesty and Magnificence.
This is a great book to spend some time with. The information, along with pictures, highlights the amazing facts of our surrounding natural world.

[Danielle]

Every word, people. I never thought I’d be the type to read every word of a book like this. Then I became a mom.

[Mandy Crumb]

A beautiful book with great pictures, snippets of information, and easy to understand scientific processes. Perfect for a classroom or coffee table.

[Spacecoastsciencemama]

Fantastic book qe reference daily for the real photos of plants and lovely bite size facts.

[Chandra Mouli]

For kids.. but why not 😁

[Y. Cimen]

It was fun to read this book, and the pictures were great... it may not be very informative for adults, but I enjoyed it hehe

[Christy Jackson]

Excellent, lots to learn!

[Jerome]

Very good reference book

I truly loved this book. Easy to read. Beautiful images. I will return to this book again and again. Just Beautiful.

[Nora]

A great introductory book to plants. 赏心悦目。

[Jessica]

(This was a wish list gift from Karen)

Awesome photos - the kids will like to look through it, I think.

[Ruben]

No m'agrada massa traduir plantes... però aquest cop veig que he après força coses, i soc capaç d'identificar més flors al món real!

[Rachel]

I appreciated the order the information was presented and the photography, but overall this wasn’t a memorable read I would return to, even for reference. Each two-page spread features one paragraph about the overall subject, a second about a few specific species within that subject, and the rest of the spread is covered chaotically with various photos illustrating the point, with small blurbs here and there containing facts or details. Such a layout is difficult to read as the eye jumps to and fro with no landing place, and it left me feeling like I might have missed information. Additionally, having hundreds of little facts thrown at me without any kind of narrative to help cement the information means I retained very little of what was read. Fun to look through but little else there.

[Alba Corchero]

La hostia, te enseña muchas cosas y aprendes muchisimo sobre plantas.

[Akaigita]

The pictures are beautiful and captivating. My baby loves it.

[Luke Gronemeyer]

Quick & informative read to brush up on botany knowledge. A real treat of facts & pictures.

[Kylie2018]

Great Resource for Early Years and Primary Classrooms!!!
Great Example of a Must Have Reference Book!!

So many books do what this book does, all to varying degrees of quality, but this is one I would recommend as it meets the following requirements ...

Concise: Small amounts of text per double page spread; each spread covers one topic/concept
Great Isolated Images: Visual both 'teach' and supplement the teaching in the text.
Covers Many Concepts: Book explores the many ways of looking at / exploring plant science and includes many examples of basic concepts within this field of science (i.e. not just 'how do seeds grow' but also 'seed shapes/seed dispersal/spreading without seeds)

This book can be used to supplement organic classroom experiences/units of work or as a regular go-to read aloud that inspires further research.