An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds by Jonathan Silvertown

An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds Reviews

• 
  Lobstergirl

  
  I was kind of hoping for more botany and less natural history, but truth in advertising prevailed: the book claimed to be a natural history and it was. I learned some interesting facts, but there was also a lot of fluff, as you'd expect for a natural history written for a popular audience. Overall too much cutesiness.
• 
  Doa'a Ali

  ما هو السحر الذي يخرج شجرة مثمرة من بذرة جافة! ماذا تعرف هذه البذرة كي يتسنى لها محاولة معانقة السماء!
  النباتات بالنسبة لنا شبه ثابته، يداعبها الزمن ببطء، ولكننا لا نشهد الصراعات المستعرّة بين الأنواع. حالات اعتداء وقتل متعمّد وتشويه ومحاولات دفن الاطفال، كما يسوده أيضًا التكافل والتبادلية ليس بينهم فقط بل مع عالم الحيوانات والحشرات.
  سيرورة تطور الانواع الحيّة شيء يفجّر العقل البشري، فالبيئة عامرة بالأحداث الصغيرة التي تترك وراءها نتائج مذهلة، ولو اننا صمتنا عن الحكاية واصغينا، سنسمع قصص الخير والشر بملاحم عظيمة بطلها بذرة.
  دائمًا ما أود العودة للحديث باسهاب اكثر عن الكتب ولكنها تجبرني على عيش لحظاتي معها دون محاولة المشاركة، فأجد نفسي قد استأثرت المتعة على نفسي 🙈
  
  كان الكتاب رفيقي في الحدائق، حتى أثمّن وجودي وسط العشب والشجر وأتخيل أنني أبادل الحياة الخضراء الأحاديث
• 
  Victoria Haf

  Este libro es el "free book of the month" de la Universidad de Chicago (
  http://press.uchicago.edu/books/freeE...) y habla sobre las semillas, tiene bastantes curiosidades como por ejemplo por qué la semilla del café es cafeinada, cuales son los diferentes mecanismos de dispersión y sus ventajas, la semilla más grande del mundo, las semillas prehistóricas… es sencillo, corto y entretenido, sobre todo si tienes interés en las plantas.
• 
  Simone

  Interessante e bene scritto.
  Un viaggio affascinamente tra storia culturare (ad esempio l'introduzione in Europa del caffe) e biologia, con un rigoroso approccio evoluzionistico, alla scoperta dei semi e di come questi siano parte integrante della nostra vita.
• 
  Nickdepenpan123

  I'm surprised at the good reviews this book got in the press. It's a good coffee table book I guess, and one can gather all sort of little titbits. But if you're looking to really understand how plants/seeds work and their evolution, the book is a cumbersome read and it often confuses more than it illuminates. It often mentions biological/physiological terms and processes which are never explained (or sometimes explained much later), and often presupposes more knowledge than most books on evolution I've read (other times it goes to the other extreme and explains in length elementary things, there's little consistency). You also have poems, quotes, references to Shakespeare who said this or an unknown Chinese philosopher who said that, which are overdone and interrupt the scientific parts.
  
  In most science parts (especially on evolution), the chapters typically contain an assortment of statements, each usually written as a given, such as "seeds evolved from sea to land only once while animals evolved many times", and there rarely are explanations, references to evidence or further elaboration. I'm not disputing this or other statements, it's just that great popular science books also illustrate the scientific method and explain a few of the observations, deductions or experiments that lead scientists to a consensus. Here it's mostly random facts, no story, method or questioning.
  
  One last (and very minor and personal) gripe, there's a line in the first pages: "this isn't a long book (who has time for those these days?)". Come on, no matter how one feels about modern life, no free time (or even about people's concentration spans, dumbing down, etc, if one wants to take it further), it's hard to deny that there's a minority of avid readers and lovers of knowledge who aren't turned off by large books. Given his science background, the author is probably one of those anyway. Just a harmless comment I guess, but I found it unnecessary, populist and a little patronizing. Speaking of size, the book is perhaps shorter than it looks due to relatively large fonts and many pretty drawings.
  
  On a more positive note, it's never easy to popularize a complex topic without under/over doing it, it needs clear thought, precise language and good structure. I think this book is meant to be an easy popular science book but it tries to be too many things to too many people (in too little space) and it ends up not that successful. Still, it could be a worthwhile read for readers interested in the topic, and I'd rate it at two and a half stars if I could.
  
• 
  uosɯɐS

  Loved it! Reminded me a bit of the book
  Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth.
  
  What does it mean to be a seed? What are the ancestor's of seeds? How do male and female each influence the next generation? How does it protect itself? How does it get about? How does it know when to grow, or not grow? Can it see? Can it smell? Why are there so many?
  
  -----
  I remember there was some fascinating info in here about sunflower seeds and saturated vs unsaturated fat.
• 
  Dennis Littrell

  A gem, a delight and a storehouse of delicious information
  
  I'm always on the lookout for books about food plants in their natural state detailing where those foods originated, and how those plants become 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.
  
  --Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
  
• 
  Ettore1207

  Un libro interessante dalla prima all'ultima pagina, in cui la parte scientifica si sposa alla perfezione con quella divulgativa. Qualche passaggio non è di facile comprensione, ma non è un problema: basta saltare poche righe e si ritorna in sella.
  Casualmente l'ho letto subito dopo Denny-McFadzean/L'ingegneria degli animali, opera con cui si integra benissimo soprattutto nelle parti che descrivono le alleanze e le strategie di difesa fra semi ed animali.
  Avrebbe giovato l'inserimento di qualche figura e schema illustrativo.
  
  Nel Dizionario del diavolo Ambrose Bierce sintetizzò la natura ancipite dei veleni di origine vegetale con la sua tipica ironia: «Belladonna (s.f.): in italiano è una bella signora; in inglese un veleno mortale. Esempio particolarmente calzante della fondamentale identità di queste due lingue».
  ---
  Immaginate un’industria chimica in grado di trasformare acqua, letame e aria in oli di alta qualità e di grande valore commerciale; questa fabbrica, inoltre, funziona esclusivamente a energia solare, emettendo ossigeno come unico scarto. Gli oli prodotti sono igienicamente confezionati in una forma disidratata facile da trasportare, lavorare e immagazzinare, e le confezioni vuote possono essere riciclate come cibo nutriente per il bestiame. Il letame fornito dagli animali può poi essere rispedito alla fabbrica per contribuire alla produzione di altro olio. Se un sistema così ecofriendly esistesse davvero, quanti soldi farebbe guadagnare a un industriale? Miliardi, di sicuro. Bene, queste fabbriche esistono e costano poco o niente: è sufficiente che l’aspirante imprenditore abbia voglia di gettare in terra un seme di girasole e guardarlo produrre un altro centinaio di semi entro la fine della stagione.
  
• 
  LyL3_Z

  Ok devo dire che la prima impressione, stavolta, è stata erronea. Dopo la confusione delle prime 40 pagine si è ripreso molto bene, fornendo informazioni ben descritte e argomentate, e degli interessanti riferimenti letterari (non solo Shakespeare, che compare una o due volte...). Ha superato le aspettative e i preconcetti, e penso che sarà uno di quei libri che consulterò varie volte in futuro. Nel complesso una buona lettura.
  
  
  ---
  - commento dopo le prime pagine -
  
  40 pagine e lo sto trovando seccante da leggere. Interessante nei temi, ma confuso nella messa in luce dei rapporti logici. L'autore interrompe di continuo l'elaborazione di ciò che sta spiegando inserendo note storiche, commenti, battute, per poi riprendere il concetto vari capoversi più tardi: questo genera confusione nella consequenzialità di ciò che espone. A complicare tutto questo c'è anche il fatto che i concetti trattati non sono semplici (per ora mi riferisco al bilancio dei cromosomi nell'endosperma e allo svantaggio della androgenia), e mi sembrano spiegati in maniera poco chiara, come se l'autore non volesse complicare tutto, ma, essendo il tema già di per sé complesso, si fosse fermato comunque troppo tardi nella spiegazione - tanto valeva approfondire un po' di più. Sono un'addetta ai lavori, e mi sembra strano che (per quanto grandi possano essere le lacune, o piccolo il mio cervello) i temi mi risultino confusi.
  Inoltre, un altro piccolo appunto: "la capacità di riprodursi senza un compagno potrebbe rendere la riproduzione asessuata particolarmente utile per queste specie invasive" - strani rapporti logici: piuttosto, queste specie invasive potrebbero essere tali proprio perché molto brave a sfruttare la riproduzione asessuata (fra i vari motivi). Frase anche piuttosto strana e ridondante (la "capacità di riprodursi senza un compagno" È la riproduzione asessuata... sostituendo, verrebbe "la riproduzione asessuata renderebbe la riproduzione asessuata utile per specie invasive", il che, semplificando, sarebbe "la riproduzione sessuata è utile per specie invasive", ma detta in maniera piu'.... beh, più scientifica!).
  Finora mi oscura concetti, più che chiarificarmeli.
  
  
• 
  Sara Van Dyck

  So many books on plants – what makes this one different? Well, in addition to his scientific creds, Sllvertown clearly loves the literature of seeds and plants. So along with learning that seed plants first evolved on land, but retain features of the marine environment they came from, I read thoughts from Ovid , a quote from Emily Dickinson, and a paraphrase from Shakespeare. Silvertown is enjoying himself.
  
  Silvertown’s approach is to take familiar seeds or plants, from beans, roses, grapes, acorns, and more, and explore the science and the evolution behind each one. A charming book, with touches of humor and rambling, I found it more satisfactory to dip into and refer to rather than imbibe all at once.
  
  
• 
  Phil

  A little slow in the first chapter or two as it reads like a textbook on seeds. Let's get all our terms straight for seeds and parts of seeds and adaptations seeds have made throughout time. Cool beans but not fast reading. From there, we head into stories of types of seeds and the science-y terms are used to enhance the story of the seeds, how they have traveled and how they feed us.
  
  I learned a fair bit about sunflowers. Some about coffee and quite a bit about coconuts and winged seeds. If plants are your babies, I do recommend this book.
• 
  Ahmad Alduwailah

  أعظم كتاب قرأته بحياتي
  
  فريد من نوعه وكوني متخصص في هذا المجال فقد قرأت أشياء جديده ومبدعه وملهمه ولا يمكن ان انسى هذا الكتاب ابداً، واذا قرأه القارئ مره سيرجع إليه حتماً في وقت لاحق
  
  الكاتب فتح بأفكاره مجالات واسعه في مدارك عقلي ودعاني للنظر في التفاصيل الصغيره التي لا يلاحظها الكثيرون
  
  رائع رائع رائع رائع
• 
  أحمد الدين

  كتاب رائع ومنظم ومفيد جدًا للتعرف على التاريح الطبيعي للبذور وفهم النباتات والتطور والطعام ورحلة الإنسان، وبجانب كل هذا قدم المؤلف اقتباسات شعرية تدل على مدى تأثير النباتات حولنا على خيالنا.
• 
  Majota

  3.5
• 
  YITING

  章節間連結性不強，有些內容出現專有名詞就帶過去了，整體上還是蠻有趣的。
• 
  Cass

  Despite my deep love for natural history as a genre, I found myself perplexed that he was able to take such an exciting topic and make it drab. It was a bit too...professor-y, and not random enough. By that I mean that he seemed focused solely on his research of seeds, and didn't tangent toward all the other things involved. On the bright side, this made it a short read.
  The best compliment is that I read it to a group of 11 year old girls as a bed time story thinking it would put them to sleep, but many of them stayed up and interested and asked me questions in the morning. I did learn a lot, but wouldn't choose another book from this author.
• 
  Kat Fausch

  This is a great introduction book to seeds, especially if you like light playful writing. Silvertown incorporates more anecdotes than scientific facts, but he ensures that the facts he does include are memorable and worthwhile. I recommend reading this as a companion to a real botany book if you're looking to learn a lot.
• 
  Fleece

  didn't like (hated) the writing style, didn't go in depth enough for my taste either. not recommended if you already know how natural selection and domestication works, cos he'll just KEEP GOING ON ABOUT IT, IN A HORRIBLE STYLE
• 
  Heather

  Like the best natural histories, both informative to the general public and interesting to the trained scientist. A fun read. I wasn't crazy about the quirky chapter transitions (last sentence of one chapter becomes title of next in most cases), since it seemed forced.
• 
  Fabiola

  Really loved this book. Well written, the author used a scientific perspective, but the language used is easy to understand. Every argument is developed in depth, with lots of literature references. Really appreciate it!
• 
  Luke

  Light but quality pop-science on seeds, plant sex, and plant's evolutionary relationships with pollinators, parasites, and people. Via UChicago's free monthly ebook program.
• 
  Magister

  I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
  
  http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12599954
• 
  Molly

  A pleasant potpourri of seed information. The tone might be a bit too cute for some readers, but I definitely learned a lot of interesting facts.
• 
  Kulthoum كلثوم

  أشعرني بالخجل من مناهج مدارسنا التعليمية !!
  .
  ممتع بإقتباساته و ربطه بأحداث من التاريخ
• 
  Drew

  The second book I've read by Silvertown. They were both quirky, but wonderful.
• 
  Erica

  I enjoyed this book and the quirky, funny narrative voice that Silvertown adopts here. I found the introduction a bit too technical and the jokes a bit too forced. Later, the technical bits are fascinating and the jokes are funnier and seem less forced. Silvertown is not a historian, but I appreciate the effort he takes in historicizing seeds across time. (The Nixon-Kruschev moment he describes on p.68 was far more complex and weird than he allows, and probably undermines his point in that section, but on the whole, he presents balanced historical examples.) There's a tendency in this book to extend metaphors too far--something I felt was unnecessary (because seeds are inherently fascinating!). There are a few times when Silvertown's references and metaphors about gender are really problematic; in this way, I wish he had read some of the great new ecofeminist work coming out, or even some of the older work by Schiebinger, et al. The gendered references through Linnaeus are great on p.25, but ring as unaware later on.
  
  p25: quoting Linnaeus "the great analogy which is to be found between plants and animals in that they increase their family in the same way...."
  p30: something I don't yet understand about evolution. "a fundamental principle of evolution: natural selection works for the good of the individual, not for the good of the species." (How can this possibly be so? I can't imagine it working beyond one single generation.)
  --lots of other nice moments here.