Plants
Diversity and Evolution

A new textbook that advocates a more ecological and process oriented approach to plant sciences.

Martin Ingrouille (Author), Bill Eddie (Author)

9780521794336, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 August 2006

458 pages, 250 b/w illus. 200 colour illus. 30 tables
24.6 x 18.9 x 2.4 cm, 0.98 kg

Plants are so much part of our environment that we often take them for granted, yet beautiful, fascinating and useful plants are everywhere, from isolated moss colonies on stone walls to vast complex communities within tropical rainforests. How did this array of form and habitat come about, and how do we humans interact with the plant kingdom? This unique new textbook provides a refreshing and stimulating consideration of these questions and throws light in a new way on the complexity, ecology, evolution and development of plants and our relationship with them. Illustrated throughout with numerous line diagrams and beautiful colour photographs, the book provides a comprehensive introduction to the fascinating lives that plants lead and the way in which our lives are inextricably linked to theirs. It will be particularly useful to students seeking a more ecological and process-oriented approach than is available in other plant science textbooks.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Process, form, and pattern
2. The genesis of form
3. Endless forms?
4. Sex, multiplication, and dispersal
5. Ordering the paths of diversity
6. The lives of plants
7. The fruits of the Earth
8. Knowing plants
Glossary
References.

Subject Areas: Biodiversity [RNCB], Botany & plant sciences [PST], Evolution [PSAJ], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF]