Lives of Weeds - by John Cardina (Paperback)

About the Book

"The natural histories of eight ordinary plant species transformed into noxious weeds through mostly well-intended human efforts to get rid of them show how lives of people and weeds are entangled in ways that reflect human beliefs and attitudes toward the natural world"--

Book Synopsis

Lives of Weeds explores the tangled history of weeds and their relationship to humans.

Through eight interwoven stories, John Cardina offers a fresh perspective on how these tenacious plants came about, why they are both inevitable and essential, and how their ecological success is ensured by determined efforts to eradicate them. Linking botany, history, ecology, and evolutionary biology to the social dimensions of humanity's ancient struggle with feral flora, Cardina shows how weeds have shaped--and are shaped by--the way we live in the natural world.

Weeds and attempts to control them drove nomads toward settled communities, encouraged social stratification, caused environmental disruptions, and have motivated the development of GMO crops. They have snared us in social inequality and economic instability, infested social norms of suburbia, caused rage in the American heartland, and played a part in perpetuating pesticide use worldwide. Lives of Weeds reveals how the technologies directed against weeds underlie ethical questions about agriculture and the environment, and leaves readers with a deeper understanding of how the weeds around us are entangled in our daily choices.

Review Quotes

[John Cardina's] penetrating analysis disentangles botany from history by offering eight interwoven stories, each focused on one weed, some familiar, others less so.

-- "Nature"

Blending personal anecdotes of eight weedy plants with research from a broad range of disciplines, Cardina covers a diversity of topics in a remarkably fluid and comprehensive manner. Drawing upon such fields as botany, ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation, and agriculture, the book is a captivating and accessible narrative of humanity's complex and intermingled relationship with the "botanical misfits" commonly referred to as weeds.

-- "Economic Botany"

Cardina weaves together autobiographical and historical anecdotes, precise explanations of plant biology, and speculative but startlingly plausible evolutionary scenarios involving human agency and facilitation for eight common plant species currently considered weeds, or "plants of disrepute." The result is a series of highly readable vignettes about agricultural weeds and their interaction with human culture. Students and researchers in agriculture and ecology will likely enjoy reading Cardina's witty natural history of weedy plants and should consider his suggestions for how and why to treat them with greater respect.

-- "Choice"

In this expert debut, Cardina explores humans' 'long and ongoing relationship with weedy plants.' Focused and fascinating.

-- "Publisher's Weekly"

About the Author

John Cardina is Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at Ohio State University.