Green Inheritance: Saving the Plants of the World.

GREEN INHERITANCE: Saving the Plants of the World ANTHONY HUXLEY

Conservation efforts have traditionally focused on animals, from monarch butterflies to giant pandas. But the plants on which these and all other animals rely, directly or indirectly, for sustenance are often taken for granted by the public. Nettles, bamboo plants, and potatoes don't inspire the same degree of passion that our nearer relatives do. Huxley's aim is to emphasize plants' unique role in maintaining life on Earth and to illuminate the plight of many crops, trees, and flowering plants that are being slashed or harvested into oblivion. Plants alone have the capacity to convert raw chemicals such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon--through the process of photosynthesis--into living tissue. Science writer Huxley details plants' uses as medicines, fuel, food, and objects of beauty. It's just this utility that is threatening many plant species with extinction, Huxley notes. This beautiful book deftly makes the case for botanical conservation. Univ. Calif. Press, 2006, 192 p., color plates and illus., paperback, $29.95.