Rooted in Time
Through the eyes of someone with a lifetime passion for plants, Rooted in Time blends botany and palaeontology on a journey through Earth’s greening over 3.5 billion years of history. It details Carole Gee’s early forays into the garden through to botanical pilgrimages and becoming an Associate Professor of Paleontology at the University of Bonn, Germany.
In this personal trip through the plant kingdom, Gee provides anecdotes about encountering eighteen plants and explores their botanical significance, cultural importance, natural history, and ethnobotanical usefulness. This is supplemented by more than 100 colour photographs of microscopic plant elements, 3D scans, and field photographs of rocks, fossils, living species, and their surrounding landscapes, plus artistic watercolour illustrations by Channing Redford.
Part 1 considers living fossils – ancient lineages that are the sole survivors or have remained unchanged for billions of years – and the origins of the vast expanse of plant life today. This includes the tenacious lycophytes, which are the oldest surviving lineage of vascular plants on Earth. Parts 2 to 4 explore examples of living fossils in depth, including gingko, dawn redwood, sacred lotus, mangrove palm, and oddities like the parasitic conifer coral tree. These are interspersed with chapters on key events in plant evolution, beginning with the divergence of vascular plants, before moving on to why and how their distribution across Earth began, canopy initiation for height and survival against light competition, reproductive innovations, and species diversification.
Gee ponders how microscopic cyanobacteria transformed the planet’s atmosphere through photosynthesis, the Great Oxygenation Event that eventually allowed life to flourish and transition from marine and fresh waters to land. There, they evolved a plethora of innovative reproductive systems to ensure their success – the seeds, cones, and flowers we know from walks in nature and inside our own homes.
In an increasingly urbanised world, this book encourages readers, from science professionals through to garden enthusiasts, to time travel and appreciate the historical weight of the natural environment around us that has helped to sustain life on Earth for billions of years.
Reviewed by Hannah Bird
Details
BY: Carole T. Gee (2024). John Hopkins University Press. 280 pp. (hbk)
ISBN: 9781421449388
PRICE: $39.95 www.press.jhu.edu
