Once, this was a planet of rocky hues of grey, brown, and ochre.
And then the plants came.
From the first tiny green scouts that clung to watery banks, plants spread across the land, opening their leaves to the Sun, growing tall, turning the world green. How did plants accomplish this extraordinary feat? David Beerling takes us through the story, from the first tentative steps of moss-like plants to the bold march of forests, the appearance of flowers adding a riot of colours, and the spread of grasses.
It is a tale scientists are just coming to understand, but one thing is clear: plants have not just painted the planet in luxuriant greenery, they have altered the workings of its climate and soils. We destroy them at our peril.
Beerling shows us that plants made our planet habitable. We should think carefully about whether hubris or humility is the better guide for navigating an uncertain planetary future!'
Sir Peter Crane, author of Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot
'Beerling explains with clarity and passion the extraordinary story of how plants escaped from their ancestral freshwater habitats and how we, Homo sapiens, are now threatening our own future existence by damaging earth's fragile ecosystems!
Richard Deverell, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
'David Beerling explains why, far from being a nineteenth century science, botany should lie at the centre of debates about how we deal with the future of the biosphere.'
Richard Fortey