Plants & people

Although it is noble to study things just for the sake of so doing, it is arguably more defensible if one can justify that interest. So, whilst it is fine to study botany (personally, I can't think of a ‘finer’ – or more noble – calling!), we should be mindful of the wider context of that work. And for botany there is a very simple equation; botany = plants = people. Simply put, botany is the ultimate science of humanity. OK, maybe that is going too far for some, but the point I'm trying to make is that without ‘context’ and an appreciation of the bigger picture it is easy to lose sight of why we are studying X, Y or Z. To that end it is always useful to be reminded of the importance that botany – especially under its modern guise of plant science – plays in all our lives. And that is essentially the premise of Mauseth's Plants & people (hereafter referred to as P&P). It has a second goal, too, as part of Jones & Bartlett's (the book's publisher) ‘Learning Topics in Biology Series’, which aims to ‘supply comprehensive texts that will introduce non-science majors to the wonders of biology’.

After Chapter 1's ‘Introduction’ (approx. 18 pp.), which makes the case for the importance of an understanding of plants and people, the book is divided into thematic sections. Section 1, ‘Plants Themselves’ (approx. 206 pp.) is a scene-setter – to get those ‘non-science majors’ up to speed – and deals with topics such as ‘Whole plants’, ‘Cells, tissues and organs’, ‘Basic metabolism’, ‘Energy metabolism’, and four chapters on various aspects of reproduction, genetics and evolution. There are many very good general botany texts – e.g. Raven et al. (2003) and Mauseth (2003) – that cover this section's material, and at more length and in more detail. But that may well be the point of P&P: it is supposed to be a general text for ‘non-majors’ and so has to be self-contained. Thus this Section's general scene-setting is probably necessary (and essential), even though it inevitably means less space for the real people dimension. Section 2, ‘Plants, People, and the Biosphere’ (approx. 82 pp.), has three chapters dealing with ‘Plant biogeography’, ‘Climate change’ and ‘Agriculture and the biosphere’ (large-scale human–plant issues are dealt with here; whereas the next section focuses more on specific – frequently individual species-level – often smaller-scale issues). Finally, Section 3, ‘Economic Botany’ (approx. 137 pp.; but, arguably – arguably? No argument, surely! – should be the biggest part of the book), features six chapters with the diverse titles: ‘Food plants: plants that make our lives possible’; ‘Spices and herbs: plants that make eating fun’; ‘Plants as sources of medicines, drugs and psychoactive compounds’ (plants that make life both possible and fun?); ‘Fibers, wood, and chemicals: plants that clothe and house us’; ‘Ornamental plants: plants that refresh us’; and ‘Algae and fungi: close (and not-so-close) relatives of plants’ [but one can't ignore them – they are Melbourne Code organisms (Miller et al., 2011), after all! – and they extend the range of people's plant-related dependence … ]. Certainly, those chapters' sub-titles make it fairly obvious how important plants and plant products are to people (whether they be non-majors or majors … ). The text concludes with 24·5 pages of a 2-column Glossary, from ABA to Zygote (an interactive version of which exists on the companion website – but which was no use for looking up ‘abacá’ … unless you search for ABA first, then it finds abacá as a close match for ABA … ), and a 22·5-page, 3-column Index, from Abacá (which is what? see end of this review for the answer – you might be surprised … ) to Zygotene. Each chapter has a summary box of important terms (I've not checked, but trust that all of those terms are in the glossary!) and a Summary of Concepts (from that chapter … ).

Overall, P&P is abundantly illustrated (in colour!) and well written with lots of pedagogy – and humour – and attention to detail (as one has come to expect from Mauseth, who was awarded – amongst other such distinctions in his career – the USA's student-nominated and -selected Natural Sciences Foundation Advisory Council Award for teaching in 2009). P&P has four declared objectives (Preface, p. xix): ‘To introduce you to the basic principles and concepts of plant biology; to discuss the roles of plants and people in issues of global importance such as climate change, endangered species, genetically modified organisms, pollution, and so on; to describe the plants we use in our daily lives as food, drink, clothing, drugs, and ornamental plants; and to encourage an interest in plants … ’. In my view P&P certainly achieves the first three; success of the fourth is hard to assess – but let's hope so!

But P&P is not as up-to-date as one might like. For example, it does not mention Ug99 – Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (wheat stem rust) – scourge of large swathes of wheat crops worldwide at present and since its recognition in 1999 (Anon., 2012a), which is a very obvious people–plant concern. As is Magnaporthe grisea (formerly oryzae), rice blast, which is also not mentioned (‘Rice blast is the most important disease concerning the rice crop in the world’; Anon., 2012b). In Table 4·4 (p. 94; which is the same as Table 13·2 in Mauseth's Botany) nickel is not included as an essential plant nutrient. Whilst I understand there has been debate as to its essentiality, I believe it is now firmly placed amongst the other 16 ‘essentials’ (Liu et al., 2011). I have a few other queries/comments. In Chapter 1, is Box 1·1's 2.5 pages on ‘The Scientific Method’ really necessary given the intended readership? (Although it is interesting to discover that biology is ‘lawless’.). Micrographs usually have a magnification but no scale bar; arguably, a scale bar is more useful(?), and its absence is a little out of line with Mauseth's keenness on size and measuring (pp. xxiv and xxv). Figure 3·15 presents an opportunity for confusion regarding the term ‘pit’: pits (in cell walls) of sclereids are illustrated in (a), but a different kind of pit is referred to in (c) – the ‘pit’ of a peach (I'm not even sure what that pit is, unless it is a mis-spelling of pith..?). Anyway, in the Glossary (p. 467) ‘pit’ refers only to the structure found in a sclerenchyma cell wall. In Fig. 11·1 (p. 258) a coccolithophorid is shown but not named. I think it is an Emiliana species, probably huxleyi (also known as ‘EHUX’), which information would have been useful in permitting those who were interested in pursuing their global climate change-related interests – having been inspired so to do after reading P&P's Chapter 11, in which EHUX is not unimportant (see e.g. Tyrell, 2012) – rather than just a nod in the direction of carbon sequestration on p. 270. The brown alga Undaria pinnatifida (‘wakame’, p. 442) is mentioned in the text and purportedly illustrated in Fig. 18·22 on the same page. Yet the legend for that figure refers to Gracilaria parvispora (which red algal genus the image looks like; it certainly does not look like Undaria … ). Finally (?!), the book is devoid of any indications of further reading or references. And that's quite an issue; if you are keen to emphasise that botany is an evidence-based science (Box 1.1), you really ought to provide some extra reading wherein the evidence for statements in the book can be found, and topics read further. Sadly, there don't appear to be any references as such on the companion website (see below) either. Although these are largely minor irritations (to be ironed out in a second edition?) they are irksome for me nevertheless (and more so for those non-majors … ?). On the plus side, Fig. 3.12 is a really useful teaching image since it has parenchyma, collenchyma and sclerenchyma in the same field of view! And, although evidently aimed at the US market, it translates well to the UK (whose readers may be amused/bemused to see primacy of Imperial units for macroscopic features – with metric equivalents) and Europe, and even Asia and elsewhere in the world because P&P's themes are truly global and relevant to all humanity.

Does P&P have any competitors? Yes! And the obvious ones are textbooks such as Simpson and Ogorzaly (2001) and Levetin and McMahon (2006), which cover similar territory to P&P. The former is a more traditional economic botany text (with no colour images!) and has little pure plant biology, but the latter is much closer to P&P and may be seen as a direct competitor (and has recommendations of further reading … and its 6th edition is now out, which I've not yet reviewed … ). Other ‘competitors’ are Chrispeels and Sadava (2003) and Murphy (2007), but the former is more on the genetic/environmental side of things, with much less basic botany than P&P; the latter is much more concerned with agricultural history, plant domestication and crop breeding (with hardly any of P&P's scene-setting plant biology). The most similar direct competitor is likely to be Wood and Habgood (2010), which is also designed for ‘non-majors’ in the UK's Open University and covers some similar ground to P&P, but with less depth on the basic botany side. For more of the ‘people stories’ behind the plant work, you really need the likes of Hobhouse (2005), Musgrave and Musgrave (2000), and Laws (2010); but to a great extent that is all that these last four volumes concentrate on – there is very little of the plant biology of P&P in them. Finally – and somewhat bizarrely – to some extent P&P actually competes with Mauseth's own botany text book (Mauseth, 2003, which has its numerous ‘Plants and People’ boxes), although P&P may be considered Botany-lite (again, for its intended readership). Anyway, it is probably a little misguided to talk of ‘competitors’. The reality is that you need several tomes to get a complete picture of plants-and-people, but P&P is about giving enough to a non-major class to get them sufficiently appraised of the important ‘stuff’, so they may be sufficiently inspired – and encouraged – to pursue their enquiries elsewhere (maybe in some of those other texts mentioned above). In that regard, P&P stands up well to the ‘competition’.

The book comes with access to its companion website (aimed at the student reader), which includes an interactive glossary, crosswords, study quizzes, chapter outlines and ‘research and reference links’. This resource is relatively straightforward and not overly fancy, but I had a few issues with it. The interesting-sounding Word file versions of chapter outlines became even more ‘interesting’ when I clicked on them individually to download and was advised that my ‘request is not supported’ (although the option to download them all at once did seem to be supported … ). One of the most ‘idiosyncratic’ web links must be to the ‘Spice Trade’ (http://www.spicetrade.org/index.html), in which you are encouraged to ‘Start from nothing and dominate another continent’ and ‘Spread the influence of your culture while creating your own empire’! Hmmm, where will that end..? (Apparently, by colonizing Europe … ). Study quizzes – which could be liberated and used as the basis for one's own multi-choice questions for an end-of-module exam (or whatever) – were useful time-savers for busy plant biology teachers. I guess (and hope!) that the great advantage of putting material onto a website is that it can be kept up-to-date and interesting, and new materials added without need to revise the hard copy text. However, be advised: access to the companion website is only for 365 days, so students are encouraged to pass the course first time round – or, in any event, within a year of accessing the site.

To end – best bits of P&P for me? Section 1 with its great 1st sub-heading on p. 1, ‘Plants are important to people’, and an equally great 2nd sub-heading on p. 5, ‘People are important to plants’. Go on, write them down, affix that note to the wall of your study/lecture theatre, computer monitor or water cooler, and let that mantra guide your life. People and plants can be so good – if they only work together. Or, as Mauseth himself writes in Box 17.1, ‘The important thing with plants is to observe them, think about them, respect them, tend them, and enjoy them’. Seconded (and Plants & People should help in this noble ambition)!

[Abacá = fibres from a banana relative used to make paper for tea bags…p. 450]