Gods, Wasps and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
by Mike Shanahan
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Description
Over millions of years, fig trees have shaped our world, influenced our evolution, nourished our bodies and fed our imaginations. And as author and ecologist Mike Shanahan proclaims, "The best could be yet to come." Gods, Wasps and Stranglers weaves together the mythology, history and ecology of one of the world's most fascinating-and diverse-groups of plants, from their starring role in every major religion to their potential to restore rainforests, halt the loss of rare and endangered show more species and even limit climate change. In this lively and joyous book, Shanahan recounts the epic journeys of tiny fig wasps, whose eighty-million-year-old relationship with fig trees has helped them sustain more species of birds and mammals than any other trees; the curious habits of fig-dependent rhinoceros hornbills; figs' connection to Krishna and Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad; and even their importance to Kenya's struggle for independence. Ultimately, Gods, Wasps and Stranglers is a story about humanity's relationship with nature, one that is as relevant to our future as it is to our past. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
An impulse checkout when we were browsing the library. Filled with all kinds of interesting anecdotes about fig trees that have been important in history, religion, ecology, and why. While I knew some of the bits about its complicated relationship with wasps, I knew almost none of the rest of this going in.
Shanahan is clearly in love with his subject and thus sometimes comes off more proselytizer than scientist (figs are amazing, yes, but really more amazing than any other group of trees?), but that can be mostly forgiven. A short and engaging work that will leave you craving Fig Newtons.
Shanahan is clearly in love with his subject and thus sometimes comes off more proselytizer than scientist (figs are amazing, yes, but really more amazing than any other group of trees?), but that can be mostly forgiven. A short and engaging work that will leave you craving Fig Newtons.
Fascinating! Terrific mix of botany, biology, mythology, agroforestry, archaeology, ornithology, history, and technology. Read it even if you hate figs.
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Author Information
2 Works 71 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2016-11-15
- Epigraph
- Then the trees said to the fig tree
'You come and be our king!'
The fig tree replied,
'Must I forgo my sweetness,
forgo my excellent fruit,
to go and sway over the trees?'
Judges 9: 12-13 (Od Testame... (show all)nt)
'I have not cut down any fig tee ... why then does calamity befall me?'
Ravenna, the ten headed demon-king of Lanka,
in The Ramayana (c. 500-400 BCE)
'Every fruit has its secret. The fig is a very secretive fruit.'
DH Lawrence - Blurbers
- Proulx, Annie; Montgomery, Sy; Lovejoy, Thomas E.; Sethi, Simran; Pearce, Fred; Blum, Deborah
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Statistics
- Members
- 61
- Popularity
- 504,789
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.09)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
