Cross-Pollinations: the Marriage of Science and Poetry.CROSS-POLLINATIONS: The Marriage of Science and Poetry GARY PAUL NABHAN Gary Paul Nabhan (1952- ) is an ecologist, ethnobotanist, and writer whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest. A first generation Lebanese-American, Nabhan was raised in Gary, Indiana. Nabhan spent several years living on the U.S.-Mexican border tracking the flow of pollen in both datura datura, n See jimsonweed. Datura a genus of toxic plants in the family Solanaceae; contain tropane alkaloids including hyoscine (scopolamine), hyoscyamine, atropine which cause excitement, restlessness, pupillary dilation, dryness shrubs and cereus cereus: see cactus. cereus Any of various large cacti (genus Cereus and related genera) of the western U.S. and tropical New World, including the saguaro and the organ-pipe cactus (Lemairocereus thurberi, also L. marginatus or C. thurberi). cacti. Each evening, he would figure out which of these nightbloomers' flowers were going to open and then observe how the two plants benefit from the same insect pollinators. Since then, he's been fascinated by cross-pollination in its many forms--from insect-plant interdependence to the sharing of ideas among people. Here, Nabhan focuses on the latter. In a series of short essays, he considers, for instance, what everyone can learn from Native American songs and how an Amy Clampitt poem links to diabetes research. A final essay written by Scott Slovic describes the effects of cross-pollination on the work of Nabhan himself. Milkweed milkweed, common name for members of the Asclepiadaceae, a family of mostly perennial herbs and shrubs characterized by milky sap, a tuft of silky hairs attached to the seed (for wind distribution), and (usually) a climbing habit. , 2004, 107 p., paperback, $14.00. |
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