The extraordinary palm: diverse and prolific, symbolic and often sacred, essential and exotic (and at times erotic), exploited and controversial.
The signature greenery of the tropics and subtropics, these record-breaking plants produce the world’s biggest and heaviest seed, the longest leaf, and the longest stem. In the superbly illustrated, similarly extraordinary Palm, Fred Gray portrays the immense cultural and historical significance of these iconic and controversial plants, unfurling a tale as long and beguiling as their bladed fronds.
As Gray shows, palms sustained rain forest communities for thousands of years, contributing to the development of ancient civilizations across the globe. But as palms gained mystical and religious significance, they also became a plant of abstractions and fantasies, a contradictory symbol of leisure and luxury, of escaping civilization and getting closer to nature and at times to danger and devastation. In the era of industry and empire, the palm and its myriad meanings were exported to far colder climes.
Palms were shown off as exceptional performers in iconic greenhouses and used to clothe, romanticize, and glamorize an astonishing diversity of new places far from their natural homelands. And today, as millions of people worldwide consume palm oil daily, the plant remains embedded in consumer society and mired in environmental controversy.
About the Author
Fred Gray is Emeritus Professor of Continuing Education at the University of Sussex, Brighton. He is the author of Designing the Seaside: Architecture, Society and Nature (Reaktion, 2006).
Industry Reviews
"The incredible timeline at the end of the book is laudable and provides the complete life history of palms on Earth. . . . The suggested reading and the links provided will surely come in handy for further understanding of the palms. The spectacular paintings and photographs in the book provide more soul to the content. One more significant point that has to be highlighted is the majestic nature of palms. The largest inflorescence, biggest seed, largest leaflet, and longest plant stem all belong to members of Arecaceae. . . . I would suggest the book to any botany students and general readers interested in plants."--Alys Flower "Economic Botany"
"A must-read book. Even if you don't think you're interested in palms, you should probably know how crucial a role they play in your life. . . . [Palm is] beautifully written and perfectly peppered with good references, photographs, and paintings. It's a pleasure to read, but it wasn't until I got to palms and capitalism that for me this book became something else. . . . What this book teaches, in its mannered and careful approach, is that palm oil is in much more than just biscuits and lipstick, it lubricates the modern world and how it got to play that role is carefully laid out. . . . The palm as a motif is often symbolic of leisure, of opulent exoticism and the remote desert island getaway, and yet in reality it is playing a far more destructive role."--Alys Flower "Gardens Illustrated"
