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Books in Ethnobotany

  • Dictionary of Plant Lore

    • 1st Edition
    • May 2, 2007
    • D.C. Watts
    • English
    Knowledge of plant names can give insight into largely forgotten beliefs. For example, the common red poppy is known as "Blind Man" due to an old superstitious belief that if the poppy were put to the eyes it would cause blindness. Many plant names derived from superstition, folk lore, or primal beliefs. Other names are purely descriptive and can serve to explain the meaning of the botanical name. For example, Beauty-Berry is the name given to the American shrub that belongs to the genus Callicarpa. Callicarpa is Greek for beautiful fruit. Still other names come from literary sources providing rich detail of the transmission of words through the ages.Conceived as part of the author's wider interest in plant and tree lore and ethnobotanical studies, this fully revised edition of Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names and Their Origins contains over 30,000 vernacular and literary English names of plants. Wild and cultivated plants alike are identified by the botanical name. Further detail provides a brief account of the meaning of the name and detailed commentary on common usage.

  • Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names of North America including Mexico

    In Latin, English (American) and Spanish (Mexican and European)
    • 1st Edition
    • July 1, 2003
    • R.C. White
    • English
    The border between the United States of America and Mexico is the busiest in the world. This area is also the meeting place of the two great cultures of the Western Hemisphere, Spanish-speaking Latin America and English-speaking North America. Recent demographic migrations coupled with increasing globalization have necessitated closer cooperation and communication between these groups.The area of communication of this dictionary centers around the vernacular or common names of plants. Many recent immigrants from Mexico and further south have gained employment in areas of agriculture, landscaping, and commercial plant nurseries. The new residents also bring with them a rich history of herbal medicines that are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Both groups share interests in each other's cuisines with respect to food plants and spices.This dictionary contains the Latin, English, and Spanish names for over 7,000 species of the most important plants found mainly in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Included are native and naturalized plants as well as plants of economic value. The main section of the book is organized alphabetically by the scientific Latin genus and species of each plant. The book is also fully indexed by common names primarily in American-English and Mexican-Spanish.

  • Elsevier's Dictionary of Botany

    Russian-English
    • 1st Edition
    • August 16, 2002
    • P. Macura
    • English
    This dictionary contains approximately 60,000 entries, constituting the most extensive listing of Russian, English and Latin names of plants, trees, shrubs, fungi, and lichens. It also includes a large number of botanical and biological terms frequently occurring in Russian botanical literature.