A scientifically robust but highly readable account of the wood
beneath the trees.
More often than not, we don't see the wood for the trees. Observing the
plants of the forest floor--the flowers, ferns, sedges and grasses--can
be a vital way of understanding the nature of British woodland.
For centuries, woodland plants have been part of our lives in practical
ways, as food and medicines, and as the inspirations for poetry, perfume
and pub signs. They tell us stories about the history of woodland, its
past management, and how that has changed--not always for the better.
They can also be a visible sign of progress when we get conservation
right.
In this insightful and original account, Keith Kirby explores how
woodland plants in Britain have come to be where they are, how they cope
with living in the shade of their bigger relatives and tolerate the
attentions of grazing herbivores, the challenges they face with changing
conditions throughout the seasons, and how they respond to threats in
the form of storms, fires, droughts and floods. Along the way, the
reader is introduced to the work of important botanists who have walked
the woods in the past, collecting information on where plants occur and
why, while profiles of some of our most important and popular ground
flora species provide extra detail and insight.