Oceania, particularly in Vanuatu, gardens are the evidence of an ancestral rural tradition in which food plants are at one and the same time an indispensable resource, the symbols of a community and the objects of baiter or trade. The ni-Vanuatu devote themselves with true passion to their gardens, within which they collect, select and diversify a rich botanical heritage.Perusing this abundantly illustrated work, the reader will discover the full diversity of Oceanian food plants as well a...

Root and tuber crops are important to agriculture, food security and income for 2.2 billion people in developing countries. These species produce large quantities of dietary energy and have stable yields under difficult environmental conditions. This second edition of Tropical Root and Tuber Crops is an authoritative treatment of four important root and tuber crops: cassava. sweet potato, yams, and aroids. The same format is followed for each crop: Origin and History, Taxonomy and Botany, ...

• The most comprehensive book ever written on nature's most effective stress-relieving plant.• First paperback edition of the classic comprehensive text originally published by Yale University Press.This complete guide to kava summarizes the literature and research on a plant that is now considered comparable or superior to anti-stress prescription drugs, and describes its use in the religious, political, and economic life of the Pacific islands for centuries. Beyond its so...

This lavishly illustrated guide covers the cultivated and wild edible plant species of Vanuatu. Over 200 species grown for their tubers or roots, woody species and creepers that provide fruits or seeds, and herbaceous species, from sugarcane to mint, are quoted or described in short sheets of essential facts. The guide was designed to familiarize those in the West with the food plants used in Oceania and tell the Oceanians about the origin and use of introduced plants, and is accessible to...

The New York Times–bestselling "exploration of the world from a piscine perspective . . . makes a persuasive case that what fish know is quite a lot" (Elizabeth Kolbert, The New York Review of Books).Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? In What a Fish Knows, ethologist Jonathan Balcombe addresses these questions and more, revealing th...

Winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction * Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardA “delving, haunted, and poetic debut” (The New York Times Book Review) about the awe-inspiring lives of whales, revealing what they can teach us about ourselves, our planet, and our relationship with other species.When writer Rebecca Giggs encount...

A Silent Spring for oceans, written by "the Rachel Carson of the fish world" (The New York Times)Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts—one of the world’s foremost conservation biologists—leads readers on a fascinating tour of mankind’s relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts look...

T****he monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works? No such astonishing numbers of massive statues ...

A fascinating journey with the sea creature that has captured human imagination for thousands of yearsPoseidon's Steed trails the seahorse through secluded waters across the globe in a kaleidoscopic history that mirrors man's centuries-old fascination with the animal, sweeping from the reefs of Indonesia, through the back streets of Hong Kong, and back in time to ancient Greece and Rome. Over time, seahorses have surfaced in some unlikely places. We see th...

An entrancing, informative book filled with answers to many of the common questions we ask about birds and their lives.For thousands of years birds have fascinated us. We've observed what they do - their behaviours, their characteristics, their survival skills, the food they eat and their habitats - and wondered why they do it.Why Do Birds Do That? answers many of these often-asked questions, such as: Why do birds sing in the mornings? Why are some...

Honorable Mention, 2012 National Outdoor Book AwardsThe polar bear, king of the Arctic, is one of the world’s most recognizable animals. Images of the majestic beasts roaming across the ice cap, plunging into frigid waters, and playing with furry cubs have come to symbolize the beauty and grandeur of the Arctic. Andrew E. Derocher and Wayne Lynch have spent decades following the bears, and this book offers the most comprehensive and readable review of their biology, ecology, behavi...

A moving account of Madagascar told by a researcher who has spent over fifty years investigating the mysteries of this remarkable island.Madagascar is a place of change. A biodiversity hotspot and the fourth largest island on the planet, it has been home to a spectacular parade of animals, from giant flightless birds and giant tortoises on the ground to agile lemurs leaping through the treetops. Some species live on; many have vanished in the distant or recent past...