As you already know, I love myths and legends and I love collecting books about them. Plant Lore and Legend fills a gap in my collection, because I have nothing about this subject.
Plant Lore and Legend is a slim book talking about the history of plants, including the lore and legends behind them. The book is divided into three sections: ‘The Wonder of Flowers’, ‘The Lore of Trees’, and ‘The Power of Plants’. Within each chapter, each plant gets a page or two and Binney sketches out a quick history of how the plant has been viewed and used. Short sidebars add small tidbits of interesting information, such as:
- Fertility symbols: acorn, quince, avocado, almond, and mistletoe
- Coconut traditions
- Effects of certain woods (e.g. ash for reverence, hickory for endurance, etc), which is useful if you want a wand
- Principles of Ikebana
While most of the book focuses on Western legends, there are a few entries that reference Asian tradition – I appreciated that inclusion, although I still need a book that focuses on Asian plant lore and legend (and also, Africa and the Middle East).
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much! It’s contained a lot more information than I expected, and I expect I will be returning to this book in the future.
This isn’t a book that normally would appeal to me, but lately I’m finding myself drawn to subjects I wouldn’t have been five or ten years ago. This actually does sound like something I might enjoy nowadays. Of course, mention lore, myths and legends and I’m automatically intrigued about just about any subject. Thank you for sharing!
It’s really fun! I think if you already know a bit about plants, this would help the enjoyment even more!
I’m not surprised this book could not cover the topic thoroughly. I believe that every single preindustrial culture has at least some lore connected to nearly all plants, and extensive lore connected to a handful that are especially important in their cultural history. This sounds fascinating, and I am sure the topic could be worth an encyclopedia of knowledge! Thanks for sharing!
That’s true! This book is a really good introduction to plant lore, imo!
This is fascinating! So many different plants surround us every day and it can be easy to overlook them when they are all different and unique. I love how I can discover such different books that I usually don’t read but may have an interest in through your blog, thank you for sharing!
Thank you! It’s a very interesting book, I would definitely recommend it (:
This is something I should really pick up! I wish I could identify plants by looking at them, it’s a goal for the future!
I am so bad at plants in general (I have whatever the opposite of a green thumb is) but this one was really fun!