The Rose's Kiss: A Natural History of Flowers

by Peter Bernhardt

Book Overview

"An engaging botanical overview of flowers."-New York Times Book Review In The Rose's Kiss, Peter Bernhardt presents a fascinating and wide-ranging look at the natural history of flowers--how they... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559635649
• ISBN13: 9781559635646
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Island Press
• Length: 267 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining botany lesson....

Peter Bernhardt is a professor of biology associated with both the St. Louis University and the Missouri Botanical Garden of St. Louis. Although named for America's favorite flower, THE ROSE'S KISS is not dedicated exclusively to the rose. Bernhardt discusses roses throughout the book-particularly the Dog Rose which may be the grandmother of all time-and every section is headed by an epigram saluting the rose, but Bernhardt's focus is the evolution of angiosperms (flowers)-how they came into existence, how they outfoxed the gymnosperms by making themselves irresistible to pollinators, and how today they are in their glory as humans have fallen for their charms. Hard core gardeners will love this book. Reading Bernhardt you can learn about petals, sepals, carpels and stamens and the fine art of setting seed. The book is loaded with anatomically correct illustrations of flowers and flower parts as well as pollinators and pollinator parts. Did you know, for example, that those large and beautiful colored "petals" on your wind flowers (Anemones, Clematis, Hepatica) are really sepals and not petals at all? The next time your Clematis vine produces flowers, observe the green sepals turn white or purple or pink. Other plants like the rose produce sepals that curl back and reveal true petals that open into colorful flowers. Anyone who has gardened for a while notices that bees and butterflies seem to prefer one kind of flower over another, and that some plants produce a sweet scent while others are stinky, and some produce exorbitant amounts of pollen while others seem to produce none, and some flowers produce gobs of nectar while others appear dry. Those who have grown annuals, biennials, and perennials might wonder why some plants last one year, some two, and others go on for a time. Others might wonder why some plants have "male" and "female" versions while other plants seem to be self reliant when it comes to setting fruit. Bernhardt addresses these any many other issues concerning flowering plants. Bernhardt says we live on a planet pollinated primarily by bees. Although humans and other animals may enjoy the honey certain kinds of bees produce, flowers depend on many different kinds of bees to set fruit. The continued existence of bees and other pollinators is dependent on environmentally sound human behavior.

Bees, Pollen and the sex lives of flowers

I love growing old roses and reading books about roses and plants every now and then. This is the best book on flowers I've read. Peter Bernhardt (no relation -- never met him) takes us from the structure of the flower, through it life cycle, into the intimate details of its sex life, and on an interesting trek through the early history of flowers (which turns out to be much longer and more interesting than I had expected). I was fascinated by the sections on pollen and how flowers produce it and get it to move from plant to plant (or keep it to themselves within the same closed flower). After reading this book I plan to redesign my garden to provide the bees with more nectar producing flowers to give then the energy they need to work the roses. Before reading The Rose's Kiss I thought that dinosaurs lived in a world without flowering plants. I was wrong. Now I am going to reread the Rose's Kiss and find a book on bees. (And a final note, this is not really a book about roses, though they are mentioned several times. It is about flowering plants of all types.)

Snottygobble

I reviewed this book for Nature and recommended it highly. I see no reason to change my mind. It is scholarly, illuminating, witty, easily read, and explains in simple but thorough terms how flowers work. It is a book for the layman that a professional botanist can read with interest. Dr Bernhardt laces the book with personal experiences, relevant anecdotes, and his deep knowldege of botany. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in floral biology and ecology. There is much to learn from this book.

An Interesting, Fun, Different, and Totally Worthwhile Read!

I'm a garden writer myself (Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press) and I just finished reading The Rose's Kiss by Peter Bernhardt. I really enjoyed this book and was amazed at how much I learned too. I read quite a bit of botanical-based material and all too often find the writing very dry, factual but not much fun to read. This book though, is just the opposite--it is fun and totally interesting and you'll learn a great deal from it...be you a botanist, gardener, or just someone who likes to learn more about science. Peter Bernhardt (who I don't know personally and have never met) has a deep understanding and obvious love of botany and it shows. He is also a very fine writer and he explains things so well, so clearly, that they stick in your mind. I expect that he is also a terrific teacher since he is so expert at explaining complicated material in a simple, easy to understand way. He also tosses in hundreds of fascinating little tidbits of information as he explains flowers, for this is a book about flowers, how they're formed, how they work, how they're pollinated---great section on bats and possums and other small animals that pollinate flowers. I like too the way he explains exactly what each scientific name means and that he always gives the reader the origins of the word. I underlined heavily my copy of The Rose's Kiss and it is a book that I'll keep going back over, reading again all the many sections I've underlined. This book was a present to me from my Dad, and I would highly recommend it as a present for anyone you care about who has more than a passing interest in botany, horticulture, life sciences, and (or) Nature and gardening. A terrific book!

The Rose's Kiss

The Rose's kiss, although rather strangely titled, offered a very pleasant and thorough description of flower and pollination biology. Peter Bernhardt has a great sense of humor. I have learned and remembered much more from this one book than I have from most of my undergraduate courses in Horticulture. Mr. Bernhardt must be a fantastic lecturer.