In Richard Mabey's characteristically lyrical and informative tone, The
Cabaret of Plants explores plant species which have challenged our
imaginations, awoken that cliched but real human emotion of wonder, and
upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty and belief.
Picked from every walk of life, they encompass crops, weeds, medicines,
religious gathering-places and a water lily named after a queen.
Beginning with pagan cults and creation myths, the cultural significance
of plants has burst upwards, sprouting into forms as diverse as the
panacea (the cure-all plant ginseng, a single root of which can cost up
to $10,000), Newton's apple, the African 'vegetable elephant' or boabab,
whose swollen trunks store thousands of litres of water - and the
mystical, night-flowering Amazonian cactus, the moonflower.
From Ice Age artists, to the Romantic poets, via colonialism and the
nineteenth century botanical mania of empire, Mabey concludes his magnum
opus with the latest revelations of possible 'plant intelligence' in
this extraordinary collection of encounters between plants and people.
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