All the Dirt on Gardening

“Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History” is historian Bill Laws’ new book that identifies fifty plants that influenced civilizations. To illustrate the importance of these plants, Laws wrote, “If the world’s plants suddenly expired, we would have no tomorrow.” The book is well researched and beautifully illustrated with photographs, art reproductions, and botanical illustrations. Each entry is described with its native range and function, as an edible, medicinal, commercial or practical plant. The list includes plants you would expect to find such as coffee and wheat and others that come as a surprise such as ginger and pineapple. Camellia sinensis, or tea, has grown wild for 5,000 years from India to China. To encourage fresh leaves, tea trees were harvested by hand pinching. The green leaves were withered, fermented, dried and graded. Expensive tea was bulked up with elderberry flowers, ash leaves boiled with sheep dung, clay or iron filings. Monks living in Africa...