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An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds, by Jonathan Silvertown
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The story of seeds, in a nutshell, is a tale of evolution. From the tiny sesame that we sprinkle on our bagels to the forty-five-pound double coconut borne by the coco de mer tree, seeds are a perpetual reminder of the complexity and diversity of life on earth. With An Orchard Invisible, Jonathan Silvertown presents the oft-ignored seed with the natural history it deserves, one nearly as varied and surprising as the earth’s flora itself.
Beginning with the evolution of the first seed plant from fernlike ancestors more than 360 million years ago, Silvertown carries his tale through epochs and around the globe. In a clear and engaging style, he delves into the science of seeds: How and why do some lie dormant for years on end? How did seeds evolve? The wide variety of uses that humans have developed for seeds of all sorts also receives a fascinating look, studded with examples, including foods, oils, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals. An able guide with an eye for the unusual, Silvertown is happy to take readers on unexpected—but always interesting—tangents, from Lyme disease to human color vision to the Salem witch trials. But he never lets us forget that the driving force behind the story of seeds—its theme, even—is evolution, with its irrepressible habit of stumbling upon new solutions to the challenges of life.
"I have great faith in a seed," Thoreau wrote. "Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders." Written with a scientist’s knowledge and a gardener’s delight, An Orchard Invisible offers those wonders in a package that will be irresistible to science buffs and green thumbs alike.
- Sales Rank: #1717938 in Books
- Brand: Brand: University Of Chicago Press
- Published on: 2009-04-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .90 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 224 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From School Library Journal
Just as a seed contains the ability to create a whole plant, the evolution of seeds can serve as a microcosm for plant evolution. British ecology professor Silvertown (Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity) begins with a discussion of how seeds evolved to adapt plants to a fully terrestrial life when they emerged from the sea. In the process, he covers many relevant topics, including sexual and asexual reproduction, plant genetics, plant self-defense and seed dispersal, plant poisons, and seeds as food. The author also explains the coevolution of plants and animals, as in using and perceiving color. He covers some plant products humans use, such as sunflower oil, grain for beer, and coffee. Like Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire, Silvertown cites historical attitudes and quotations about particular plants. But he focuses primarily on the science of plant evolution rather than human history or anecdote. Endnotes suggest further reading. Silvertown writes both elegantly and clearly, and the book is as pleasurable to read as it is informative. For academic and public library botany and natural history collections.—Marit S. Taylor, Auraria Lib., Denver
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The author of Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity (2005) provides an informatively jocund jaunt through the life cycle of seeds. While rarely passing up a mirthful opportunity, Silvertown never digresses from dilating on the dynamics of natural selection in the evolution of seeds. Indeed, his account reads like a treasure hunt for evolutionary explanations of seed characteristics, such as their protective coverings. This aspect allows the introduction of botanists who have wondered about seeds and flowers, including fictional aficionados like Sherlock Holmes and characters from Shakespeare, of whom Silvertown typically takes leave with a witty adieu before spelling out the modern evolutionary interpretation of, for example, plant reproduction. Why that should be predominantly sexual rather than asexual isn’t readily apparent until Silvertown recounts the eternal contest between predator and prey that rules the evolutionary game. In like manner Silvertown considers traits favoring a seed’s survival from dispersal to germination. He concludes with a portrait of humanity’s favorite seed, the coffee bean. A pleasure to read, not least for biology mavens.
Review
“Seeds—familiar, mysterious, wonderful, endlessly fascinating, but rarely considered carefully. In this beautifully written popular exposition, Jonathan Silvertown brings seeds to life, illuminating their diversity, their amazing properties, their role in nature, evolution and fate over time, germination and fate in the life of an individual. To be read by all those interested in nature: they will gain deeper understanding from the lively words that trace these and many other aspects of these familiar structures.” (Peter H. Raven, director, Missouri Botanical Garden)
“An oak yields millions of acorns through its life, yet one survivor alone secures its line: natural selection acts most stringently on a seed. Here the author of Demons in Eden, with apt and at times hilarious quotation, explores how humanity has ingeniously exploited the extraordinary and complex devices by which plants, through their seeds, have surmounted competition. Beneath, we observe the relentless yet haphazard tide which is evolution.” (Peter Ashton, Harvard University)
null (New Scientist Best Books of 2009)
“Entertaining and charmingly illustrated. . . . For all its erudition, however, this is not an encyclopedia of botanical lore, nor a definitive text, but rather a little gem of science writing that deserves a spot on any natural history lover's bedside bookstand. . . . It is simply a delight to read.”
(Natural History)
“Just as a seed contains the ability to create a whole plant, the evolution of seeds can serve as a microcosm for plant evolution. British ecology professor Silvertown begins with a discussion of how seeds evolved to adapt plants to a fully terrestrial life when they emerged from the sea. In the process, he covers many relevant topics, including sexual and asexual reproduction, plant genetics, plant self-defense and seed dispersal, plant poisons, and seeds as food. The author also explains the coevolution of plants and animals, as in using and perceiving color. He covers some plant products humans use, such as sunflower oil, grain for beer, and coffee. Like Michale Pollan in The Botany of Desire, Silvertown cites historical attitudes and quotations about particular plants. But he focuses primarily on the science of plant evolution rather than human history or anecdote. . . . Silvertown writes both elegantly and clearly, and the book is as pleasurable to read as it is informative.”
(Library Journal)
“A fabulous book. . . . Silvertown’s skills are in telling stories. Expect wonders, too. . . . In this book, Silvertown has produced a gem. . . . Read it as a gardener, scientist, food aficionado, historian, botanist, or naturalist, and you’ll not be disappointed.”
(Times Higher Education)
"In a nutshell, I will never look at seeds the same way again, whether teeny poppy seeds or mammoth coconuts. . . . [A] delicious little book." (Leigh Dayton Australian)
“Focusing on seeds, Jonathan Silvertown has written a witty and charming introduction to the evolutionary wiles of the plant kingdom. . . . Do read this eye-opening book.”
(New Scientist)
"Silvertown is a witty botanist with a flair for seeds. . . . All botanists will enjoy this tribute to seeds." (Choice)
"A subtle but engaging narrative of the evolutionary struggles of seeds. . . . Each of the first twelve chapters of this book tells a remarkable story, accompanied by well-chosen literary excerpts." (Times Literary Supplement)
"An enthralling study of the ways seeds survive in the terrestrial world, and also sustain us humans. . . . [The] book will clearly remind its audience of a more vibrant, more sentient world than they might have imagined just outside their door." (Alan Moores Seattle Times)
"Anyone who has ever marveled at the idea of a tree exploding from something as tiny as a seed will exalt in the beauty of this book." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Now is the season to plant a garden. And there's no better companion for your labors than Jonathan Silvertown's thorough yet eminently readable history of seeds, An Orchard Invisible. . . . A veritable wonder-chamber." (Phoebe Connelly Barnes and Noble Review)
"This far-ranging book is a recommended tonic for hungry gardening minds." (Bloomsbury Review)
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
A gem, a delight and a storehouse of delicious information
By Dennis Littrell
I'm always on the lookout for books about food plants in their natural state detailing where those foods originated, and how those plants became domesticated and changed over time. "An Orchard Invisible" (the title is from the Welsh proverb "a seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible") is just such a book and one of the best I have ever read.
Just to give you an idea of how densely packed this beautifully written book is with fascinating information about seeds--and by extension food and human culture--consider these gems from just two pages:
"MSG occurs naturally in fermented soybean paste, which is the source of miso and soy sauce used to flavor Chinese and Japanese dishes." (p. 170)
"Flavor sensations are a complicated confection created in the brain from the combined inputs of all five senses." (And not just five tastes on the tongue and the myriad aromas that the nose detects.) (p. 170)
There is a berry from the West African tree Synsepalum dulcificum that contains "a protein that interferes with taste receptors in the tongue and causes sour foods to taste sweet." Unfortunately efforts to take commercial advantage of this berry failed because only fresh berries will do the trick. (p. 171)
"...[W]hite chocolate...has the sugar and cocoa butter but not the pharmacological compounds found in normal chocolate..." On the other hand, cocoa powder contains "all the pharmacological constituents and sugar found in a bar of chocolate, but without the cocoa butter." Using this information you can test yourself to find out if you love chocolate for the "mouth feel" of the velvety cocoa butter (absent in a cup of cocoa) or because of the buzz you get from theobromine (absent in white chocolate). (p. 171)
Here's more: sunflower seeds and many other plant seeds grown in northern latitudes contain less saturated oils than the same plants grown farther south. Why? "The answer seems to be that at lower temperatures, seeds whose oil stores are held in saturated form have difficulty germinating...probably because...at low temperatures saturated oils are not liquid enough for germinating seeds to use them. Unsaturated oils...are apparently easier to metabolize at lower temperatures, as you might expect from their lower melting points." (p. 144)
How about this: "in the mid-1970s it was found that orthodox Hindus who had been quite healthy on a vegan diet in their native India began to suffer from a high incidence of metaloblastic anemia after living for some time in England consuming the same diet. The cause was traced to vitamin B-12 deficiency, which in India was prevented by insect contamination of grains." (pp. 168-169) Let me add an exclamation mark to that gastronomic irony!
And this: Plants use a light-sensing molecule called phytochrome that can differentiate between light that has passed through leaves and light that has not, so that they can "sense where their neighbors are and to adjust their own growth so as to avoid them. Many seeds also use phytochrome in the same way and will germinate in darkness, but not if exposed to light that has passed through a leaf." (p. 123)
Masting, which is the name for the trick nut-bearing trees use to control the animals that eat their seeds, is a diabolic scheme whereby the tree produces a bumper crop one year filling everybody's tummy, and then for the next x number of years produces not much at all, starving the little critters to death. In this way during the bumper crop years the extra nuts get buried and forgotten or the burier dies, and in the lean years the nuts germinate sans foragers. (See Chapter 8 "Ten Thousand Acorns.")
"More than three thousand species [of plants]...have a fatty wart called an elaiosome attached to them that attracts ants in search of food. Patrolling ants that find such seeds do not detach the elaiosome there and then, but carry the whole seed back to their nest, where it is buried. Once the seed has been stripped of its elaiosome in the ant nest, the ants dump it in a viable state on a trash pile where it can germinate." (p. 112)
Some tidbits:
Coffee is originally from Ethiopia; sunflowers were first cultivated in North America; ricin is found in castor beans (hopefully not in castor oil!) and "is more toxic than cobra venom and has no known antidote (p. 126); some seeds are shaped so that with the help of a little wind are able to screw themselves into the ground all the better to germinate (see Chapter 11: "Circumstance Unknown"); the double coconut of the coco de mer of the Seychelles can weigh 50 pounds; the oldest seed ever to germinate is a two-thousand year old date seed (p. 113).
Silvertown, who is professor of ecology at the Open University in England, sprinkles the text with snippets from history and lines of poetry from Burns, Dickinson and others pertaining to seeds and things relating to seeds. The text is further augmented with some delicate and precise black, white and grey illustrations by Amy Whitesides, making the book a little gem, a delight and a storehouse of delicious information.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Seeds come to life
By Amazon Customer
An "Orchard Invisible" gives a very readable and accessible account of many aspects of seeds. How did seeds evolve? How and why do some seeds lie dormant for many years? Why are some seeds almost invisibly tiny, while the largest weighs 20 kg? Why are so many seeds poisonous? He guides the reader through the many uses of seeds - foods, oils, perfumes, pharmaceuticals.
There are also diverting accounts of seedy involvement in Lyme Disease, the Salem Witch trials, and the fatal neurological disease afflicting the native people of Guam, to list just a few of these tangential topics in the book. These stories are quite gripping.
In general the author strikes a good balance between readability and scientific rigour - "clear and engaging" and "a beautifully written popular exposition" according to the cover blurb. Botanical terminology is kept to a minimum so as not to turn off general readers. However, botanists may be frustrated by the occasional vague use of words such as "family." Does he mean the formal botanical "Family", or some other grouping?
The account of Mendel's work on inheritance requires close attention to follow the reasoning behind Mendel's experiments. But all the facts are there for those who want to puzzle it out for themselves.
Obviously much has to be omitted in a 216-page book, but it is a pity he leaves out the strawberry, whose myriad tiny seeds are entirely on the outside of the fruit. Nor does he describe the role of smoke in triggering germination. For many West Australian plants, habitat burning is the single most important cue for triggering germination of the dormant soil seed bank.
There are lengthy quotations of poetry and extracts from other writers, verging on being overdone. The few black and white illustrations look nice, but they are wholly decorative rather than complementing the text. An uncharitable reviewer might conclude that this material was included to bulk out the book so the buyer feels he or she is getting value for money.
The bibliography is extensive and thorough, and includes web references.
There are a number of typos and inconsistencies, but that is hardly unusual these days when editorial standards are in general decline.
The book is certainly worth buying. It will appeal to general readers, and also to readers with some scientific knowledge.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A gem full of seeds
By Philip Spriet
The market is swamped with books full of facts. Only a few of them manage to do more than copy paste some google search results and tell a fascinating story, express an original view or a come with a challenging vision. And it is the rare gem where this is combined with excellent editing, a real sense for humor (and not the saltless wordpuns other authors call humor), a right dose of erudition, and although from time to time quiet technical never in a way that the layman fleds away. Silvertown created such a gem. You don't have to be a naturalist or biologist or scientist to enjoy this book. And, go for the hardback, the way the book is layouted is worth the extra couple of dollars.
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