Customer Reviews

The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers

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If you find yourself wondering about wildflowers and how they were appreciated by those many generations before us, then this is a wonderful book to add to your library. I found various aspects of this book to be helpful, including the biographical notes on Pliny the Elder, Peter Kalm and many others. The author also lists regional names for plants; for instance Garlic Mustard is also known as Sauce-Alone. The book is easy to read, and gives interesting historical information from various sources on the medicinal and other uses of wildflowers. The line drawings add a nice touch. Keep in mind that the book is geared toward history and is not meant as a guide for identifying plants. Good companion books to this would be any of the Peterson's Field Guides to Wildflowers and/or Medicinal Plants.

There are things in this book I have never heard anywhere else. It is an unusual compilation of historical plant literature, which like much ethnobotany could one day simply vanish from the collective conscience.

The historical anecdotes are wide-ranging and memorable, e.g. Arrow Arum tubers were a staple food of mid-Atlantic Indian tribes; Jimsonweed's strongly hallucinogenic alkaloids were a favorite tool of medieval "wenches... so skilled in [the] dosing of it, that they [could] make a man mad for as many hours as they [pleased];" the Pawnee Indians swore by a perfume made of crushed Columbine seeds...

I cringe at the thought of how much plant knowledge was once commonly known and used, yet now stands on the brink of extinction. I liken it to a pile of never-published Bach or Vivaldi manuscripts rotting away in some attic, when they instead could bring joy to millions.