"In the tradition of The Botany of Desire and Wicked Plants, the author of Paradise Under Glass gives us a witty and engaging history of the first botanists interwoven with stories of today's extraordinary plants found in the garden and the lab".

Pt. I. Inside a plant -- Cocktail, anyone? -- The birth and long life of the vegetable lamb -- Through a glass, however darkly -- The persecuted professor -- Inside a plant -- Pt. II. Roots -- Restless roots -- The enormous gourd -- The way of all water -- How to kill a hickory -- Our fine fungal friends -- Arsenic and young fronds -- The once and future wheat -- Off to the races -- Pt. III. Leaves -- New beginnings -- A momentous mint -- Leaves eat air -- The vegetable slug -- Once in a blue-green moon -- The tenacity of trees -- Amazing grass -- Pt. IV. Flowers -- Sex in the garden -- Who needs Romeo? -- Black petunias -- The abominable mystery -- Cheap sex -- Scent and sex -- Pt. V. Onward, upward, and afterward -- Trouble in paradise -- Onward and upward -- Afterward.