Westerly Sun Column | Botany Books Help You Learn About Flora

In Rhode Island and Connecticut — and certainly at the Westerly Library, with our proximity to Wilcox Park — we’re lucky to be surrounded by natural beauty. While we’re certainly not all born botanists (I can’t even mange to keep a spider plant alive), it seems like the large majority of us are naturally drawn to plants and nature. Just look at the massive success of nature documentaries such as the “Green Planet” series with David Attenborough! Certainly now, in celebration of Earth Day, it’s a great time to delve deeper into fascinating lives of flora.

“Northeast Medicinal Plants” by Liz Neves is one of our most comprehensive and helpful guides to finding, identifying, and harvesting 111 wild plants in and around New England. In addition to learning about the medicines, teas, and tinctures that can be made from the plants, readers will also learn how to safely and ethically forage in nature. Along the same lines, “Held by the Land: A Guide to Indigenous Plants for Wellness” is a guide written by Leigh Joseph, an ethnobotanist and a member of the Squamish Nation, which covers not just the practical uses for many plants, but the long traditions held by the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Unfortunately, many of the plants discussed are native to the Northwest, but there is still plenty of information and insights to glean from this fantastic text.

“Edible Plants” by Jimmy W. Fike is a stunning coffee table book with over 100 photographs and descriptions of wild edible plants in North America. If you’re looking to identify plants in the wild, you’d be better off with some of the field guides we described, but Fike’s book is a beautiful introduction to plants that will delight readers while encouraging them to delve deeper into the subject. The summaries are fascinating, too, with plenty of technical descriptions as well as information about the edible parts of each plant, the taste, and the medicinal properties. It’s not one to miss!

I feel compelled to mention another wonderful book in our collection: “The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior” by Stefano Mancuso. While it doesn’t directly cover the medicinal or therapeutic properties of plants, it’s an enthralling look into the “hidden” intelligence of plants and the many things they can teach us, and well worth reading!

There are many other places to learn about plants, outside of books and documentaries. We recently had a wonderful presentation by Elizabeth Leibovitz of URI about pharmaceutical drugs that are created from plants, and this Wednesday at 6 p.m. we’re excited to welcome Eliza Travisano, herbalist and founder of the Medicinal Plant School of Rhode Island, for a talk on the medicinal properties of common herbs and weeds. We’ve also partnered with the Westerly Land Trust for a book discussion on Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”, taking place at their Wahaneeta Cabin, followed by a hike through the preserve. This also takes place on Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and registration is required.

by Cassie Skobrak, Adult Services Librarian