Table Of ContentUS_002-003_Title.indd 2 17/04/19 4:24 PM
s m i t h s o n i a n
TREES LEAVES
, ,
FLOWERS & SEEDS
A VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE PLANT KINGDOM
WRITTEN BY DR. SARAH JOSE
CONSULTANT DR. CHRIS CLENNETT
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S FOREWORD 6
DK DELHI
Senior Editors Anita Kakar, Bharti Bedi, Rupa Rao
T
Senior Art Editor Shreya Anand
Editorial team Arpita Dasgupta, Bipasha Roy THE WORLD
Art Editors Baibhav Parida, Debjyoti Mukherjee
Assistant Art Editors Sifat Fatima, Sanya Jain OF PLANTS 8
Jacket Designer Tanya Mehrotra
Jackets Editorial Coordinator Priyanka Sharma
Senior DTP Designer Harish Aggarwal N
DTP Designers Jaypal Chauhan, Ashok Kumar, Vijay Kandwal,
The plant kingdom 10
Mohammad Rizwan, Vikram Singh, Rakesh Kumar
Senior Picture Researcher Sumedha Chopra What is a plant? 12
Picture Researchers Aditya Katyal, Vishal Ghavri
Picture Research Manager Taiyaba Khatoon How do roots work? 14
Managing Jackets Editor Saloni Singh E What is a stem? 16
Pre-production Manager Balwant Singh
Production Manager Pankaj Sharma Living bridges 18
Managing Editor Kingshuk Ghoshal
How do seeds grow? 20
Managing Art Editor Govind Mittal
DK LONDON Seed shapes 22
Senior Editor Ashwin Khurana T
Scattering seeds 24
Senior Art Editor Rachael Grady
US Editor Jennette ElNaggar Spreading without seeds 26
US Executive Editor Lori Cates Hand
Jacket Designer Surabhi Wadhwa-Gandhi The life cycle of a plant 28
Jacket Editor Emma Dawson What is a leaf? 30
Jacket Design Development Manager Sophia MTT N
Producer, Pre-production Andy Hilliard Simple leaves 32
Senior Producers Jude Crozier, Mary Slater
Managing Editor Francesca Baines Compound leaves 34
Managing Art Editor Philip Letsu Plants with patterns 36
Publisher Andrew Macintyre
Art Director Karen Self Symmetrical swirls 38
Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler O
Self-defense 40
Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf
First American Edition, 2019 Plants and nitrogen 42
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
1450 Broadway, Suite 801, New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2019 Dorling Kindersley Limited
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC C
19 20 21 22 23 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
001–310149–Sept/2019 NONFLOWERING
All rights reserved. PLANTS 44
Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
Nonflowering plants 46
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited Ancient plants 48
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. What is a fern? 50
ISBN 978-1-4654-8242-6
Fern fronds 52
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased
in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational Dinosaur diet 54
use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets,
1450 Broadway, Suite 801, New York, NY 10018 What is a conifer cone? 56
[email protected]
Pines and needles 58
Printed and bound in China
Conifer cones 60
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
Established in 1846, the Smithsonian—the world’s largest museum
and research complex—includes 19 museums and galleries and
the National Zoological Park. The Smithsonian is a renowned
research center, dedicated to public education, national service,
and scholarship in the arts, sciences, and natural history. Smithsonian
Gardens, an accredited museum and Public Garden, engages people
with plants and gardens, informs on the roles both play in our cultural
and natural worlds, and inspires appreciation and stewardship of
living and archival collections and horticultural artifacts.
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FLOWERING Going underground 136
PLANTS 62 Soft fruits 138
Volcanic vineyard 140
Stone fruits 142
What is a flower? 64
Juicy fruits 144
Flower forms 66
Tropical fruits 146
Pollinators 68
Magnificent melons 148
Looks familiar 70
A bit nutty 150
River of blossom 72
Eat your greens! 152
A garden of roses 74
Peas and beans 154
Crazy for daisies 76
All squashed up! 156
Ingenious orchids 78
Pumpkin boat race 158
Blossoms and bulbs 80
Bulbs, stems, and stalks 160
What’s that smell? 82
Living in water 84
Along the river 86
Flooded forest 88
LIVING WITH
What is a cactus? 90
PLANTS 162
Cool cacti 92
Desert survivors 94
Desert bloom 96 Plants and people 164
Meat-eating plants 98 The spices of life 166
Poisonous plants 100 Helpful herbs 168
Parasitic plants 102 Plant products 170
Mountain life 104 Shrinking forest 172
Creepers and climbers 106 Natural beauty 174
What is a tree? 108 Plants of the world 176
Types of trees 110 Plant science 178
Barking up the tree 112 Space garden 180
Standing tall 114
Blossom time 116
Living on air 118
Strangler fig 120
The forest floor 122
GLOSSARY 182
Bonsai 124
PLANT INDEX 184
What is a grass? 126
INDEX 188
Types of grasses 128
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 192
Grasses and grains 130
Rice terraces 132
Fruit or vegetable? 134
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For
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Star fr u i t
FOREWORD
Plants are essential for life. They make our This amalgamation of disciplines is what first
planet’s atmosphere breathable, their decaying attracted me to the profession and has held my
bodies create the soil under our feet, and they interest for more than 40 years. This volume
transform light energy into consumable nutrients brought me back to Hort Studies 101, with each
that keep us alive. They also inspire artists; think chapter examining different plants, their parts,
of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Poppies, Claude Monet’s and how they interact with the world around
Water Lilies, and Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. them. Thankfully, the photographs used reveal
Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds combines the details—ranging from tangled roots to distinctive
art and science of plants, revealing complex seed and flower shapes—that surpass the old
botanical details in beautiful photographs and transparency sheets used by my professors.
simple graphics. While previewing this book, Similar to Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds,
I wondered where it was when I was a child Smithsonian Gardens combines art and science
interested in learning more about plants. in its many diverse garden and landscape
It reminded me why I began my career in exhibits. While their beauty is often what initially
horticulture. At its most basic level, horticulture attracts visitors, the science they embody
is the science and art of growing plants. showcases our living collections and provides
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Forge Ec
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Angel wings Dwarf pomegranate
depths of engagement with our audiences.
Throughout this book, you will find scale boxes that
Our gardens are delightful examples of
show the sizes of plants compared to either a child,
performative art. They change every season, a school bus, or a human hand.
indeed every day, of their existence. Smithsonian
Gardens’ staff horticulturists and gardeners are
extraordinarily knowledgeable when it comes to Child = 4 3⁄4 ft
(1.45 m) tall
plant science, yet so much of their work evolves
into genuine artistry thanks to their natural skill
in combining living collections.
Perhaps the fascinating information and School bus = 36 ft
(11 m) wide
engaging photographs in Trees, Leaves, Flowers
& Seeds will launch an inquisitive child’s journey
into the mesmerizing world of plants.
Hand = 6 in
(16 cm) long
Cynthia Brown
Smithsonian Gardens Education and Collections Manager
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US_008-009_The_world_of_plants.indd 8 17/04/19 4:24 PM
THE WORLD
OF PLANTS
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Nonflowering plants
s These are the oldest plants and include ferns
nt and mosses, which reproduce using spores.
a Conifers, which produce naked (not enclosed)
l
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f seeds, also belong to this group.
o
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e Liverworts Mosses Hornworts Lycopods
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Common liverwort Star moss Smooth hornwort Stif clubmoss
The plant
Grasses
kingdom
There are around 400,000 different types of plants, Little bluestem
and botanists—scientists specializing in plants—
discover new ones all the time. Hundreds of millions
Daisies
of years ago, the first plants were small and did
not flower. Over time, the process of evolution
has created a fantastic range of plants, from simple
ferns to stunning cherry blossoms and spiky cacti.
To bring order to this incredible variety, botanists
divide up plants into nonflowering and flowering
plants. Within these categories, there are many
10 species, and some of them are shown here. Figaro dahlia
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