The Private Life of Plants

By David Attenborough

Book Overview

Based on the immensely popular six-part BBC program that aired in the United States during the fall of 1995, this book offers what writer/filmmaker David Attenborough is best known for delivering: an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0563370238
• ISBN13: 9780563370239
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful.

Lovely, like anything by David Attenborough.

Spectacular

This book was shipped in excellent condition and but shipping took many days. The content of the book will be obviously good since it is from Sir David Attenborough.

absolutely excellent

incredible book. I dog eared the pages with fascinating information, ended up with 95% of the book dog eared. literally almost every page has something incredible that you've never heard of before. I have a college degree in biology and geology, I took some botany courses, almost none of this stuff was mentioned.

inexplicably magical

Although I could never be bored watching "The Private Life of Plants" over and over, I bought the book on a sale table, not expecting much. I was, however, absorbed in it that evening, reading and poring over pictures of plants I'd never seen. The next day I was walking along a watercourse that had recently been in flood. Hanging from a bit of log was the 'skeleton' of a fungi that I would have never recognised, had I not stared at the picture in wonder the night before, as something simply extraordinary.

Big picture botany

This book presents an overview of many areas of botany. The book is written in an informal style for the general reader rather than specialists or university students. Nevertheless, it contains a wealth of facts and information about hundreds, if not thousands of plant species. What I especially liked about the book is that it doesn't get bogged down in details when discussing topics such as seed dispersal or pollination. Instead, Attenborough has done an admirable job of explaining the issues in very clear language. He also provides numerous examples and anecdotes, along with several full color photos on every page. The photos certainly make this book a fine volume for the coffee table. As an aside, Attenborough is a British author, so some of his examples are of British or European plants that Americans may not be familiar with. At times, Attenborough's almost anti-academic style can also go a little overboard, such as when he rejects the standard practice of italicizing Latin species names. Nevertheless, the book is quite well written, and will be of interest to anyone who likes plants or photography. It could also serve as a science resource for home schoolers.

Interesting and fascinating book of an fore me unknow world

David Attenborough describes the interesting life of plants in a very interesting way, and that makes the book to my number one. He is telling us about the evolution and how it developed the plants, how it have given the spicies such spectacular behaviors, behaviors most of us didn't know about.