The Origin Of Plants

Maggie Campbell-Culver

may 2014 · Random House

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A fascinating history of Britain's plant biodiversity and a unique account of how our garden landscape has been transformed over 1000 years, from 200 species of plant in the year 1000 to the astonishing variety of plants we can all see today. Thousands of plants have been introduced into Britain since 1066 by travellers, warriors, explorers and plant hunters - plants that we now take for granted such as rhododendron from the Far East, gladiolus from Africa and exotic plants like the monkey puzzle tree from Chile.

Both a plant history and a useful reference book, Maggie Campbell-Culver has researched the provenance and often strange histories of many of the thousands of plants, exploring the quirky and sometimes rude nature of the plants, giving them a personality all of their own and setting them in their social context.

The text is supported by beautiful contemporary paintings and modern photographs in 2 x 8 pp colour sections.

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Maggie Campbell-Culver is an editor of the new edition of The Oxford Companion to Gardens and writes regularly for the Eden Friends Magazine, Historic Garden Review, the Saturday Telegraph and NCCPG Journal. She has been a member of the Garden History Society for twenty years and of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens since its inception. She managed the running and restoration of Mount Edgcumbe, the Grade 1 Historic Garden overlooking Plymouth Sound. She was a founder member of the Garden Trust Movement and Vice-chairman of the Cornwall Gardens Trust. She was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 2001. Maggie danced as a teenager with the Ballet Rambert, then studied garden history and worked on the excavation of Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex before moving to Cornwall and self-sufficiency in 1974. While living near Bodmin she was heavily involved with the Wadebridge Bookshop. She now lives in Brittany with her husband Michael.