The Importance Of Plants In Human Life

“Use of herbs as medicines dates back to the beginning of civilized man. The earliest known written records of herbal medicines were inscribed on a six thousand year old clay tablet written by the Sumerians, who lived on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now known as Iraq”(History).

In the novel, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan tells the intriguing story of how plants are domesticated from the perspective of the plant with regards to four specific plants.. The four plants he chose for discussion are the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. As he discusses the domestication of these plants, his overall focus is the desire that each of these plants have to us as humans. Pollan has written books and magazine articles among other pieces of literature that discuss the relationship between plants and humans. Throughout this informational text, Pollan tries to keep the perspective from the “plant’s-eye view of the world,” but he often slips into Pollan’s eye view of the world. As he talks about experiences that he has had with each of these plants and gives a little bit of their history, it was often hard to stay focused on the topic that he was trying to convey. However, I found that the perspectives that Pollan brings up are interesting to think about. The Botany of Desire was an interesting journal type informational novel that didn’t quite live up to my expectations of what it could have been.

     Since the beginning of the human race mankind has depended on the natural resources in their environment for survival. They utilized the available flora to nourish their body, heal their wounds, comfort their ailments and to create products to ease their daily lives. Many of the same plants utilized thousands of years ago by the indigenous people have been integrated into modern day medicines. The scientific interest and knowledge of plants for nourishment, healing, and practical uses is called ethnobotany.

Before the Renaissance, people with special powers were looked up to and seen as an important part of the community. These people had a large amount of knowledge about plants and herbs, and often used this knowledge to benefit the community, as they acted as healers. Some plants that they used included St. Johns Wort, Monkshood, Mandrake and even poisonous plants like Belladonna and Hemlock.

Plants and animals are very important to human life. Plants and animals developed natural forms

Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s View of the World, addresses four major plant groups that have both changed for human needs and simultaneously changed human’s needs. While most gardeners, genetic engineers and other plant related professionals have long-believed that plants have evolved based on what we want or need to survive and in other words what we have “domesticated”, Pollan appeals to the plant’s view. Plants’ survival has been solely based on what humans desire both depending on their visual and stimulatory appeal along with their appeal to an appetite. Conversely, plants have used humans as a strategy for “getting us to move and think for them (page xx)”. Many plants have successfully maneuvered humans for

Herbs have been used throughout the ages not just for their culinary benefits. In the use of magick and healing certain herbs and plants are used for their spirits or characteristics.

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen uses examples of four plants including the apple ,tulip, marijuana, and the potato, to describe evolution and how mankind works to help plants reproduce. We are a slave to things of sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. These four things are described by the different plant chapters in the book. We as people are driven to these kind of things because of the product we get, we subconsciously are working to make these plants more fit and therefore helping in their reproduction and evolution. With each plant chapter Pollen goes into depth about its contribution to the world and history behind the plant within human evolution. By using the examples he provides in the book helps demonstrate the ideas of how these plants contribute to the human body systems, evolution and ecology. To further explain these topics I chose to explore the apple, tulip and cannabis plants.

As the quote mentions, the study of plants is really important and can be very exciting. Before digging deeper into the quote from They Came before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertima, I was not aware of how important relationships between plants and their environments were. Simple examples include a cactus to the desert climate, or a more complex example; the sunflower being native to both North and South America. This quote proves that botany is not just a simple science of plants, but very complex, for it opens up information that travels way back in time. Plants have been around since the beginning of life and are very important to the life of humans. The information from the slide titled “Did you know” is extremely important to the world of botany.

Given that plant life appeared on earth 700 million years ago, this would mean that there would be only one type of plant on earth, which is obviously not the case. If one can get past certain passages of excessive, flashy writing and various grammar errors, Silvertown’s book does a respectable job on explaining the Darwinian paradox by proposing hypotheses that would help control and prevent potential demons. He presents these theories with the goal of providing the tools needed to keep plant diversity rich and numerous while saving the plants that are threatened by foreign demons. This information would benefit many people considering it would help prevent the extinction of many plant species and help rescue endangered plants for future generations to appreciate and

Ancient Romans understood the importance of food, diet and plants to prevent and cure illness. Roman doctors used figs for treating wounds, plantains for dysentery and fenugreek for poultices. Romans also

Plants and animals are part of human's everyday life, their in almost everything humans use. There was a time that plants and animals were used only for food and some basic needs such as clothes, and protection. Later the doom of animals and plants would be when humans became smart enough to know how to domesticate both plants and animals. Animals who were once free roaming became controlled and plants who once were wild became secluded to a certain amount of land. This revolutionary idea brought about farming and invention of new tools as well as new purposes for animals besides meat. Domestication was important to early humans it meant that food surplus could be controlled and regulated. This is evident from the many fossils from settlements being found containing animal bones and seeds.

Humans have taken naturally growing plants and improved them for our own gain through selective breeding, Domestication.

Justice and forgiveness are often used in similar ways, except they are hypothetically opposites. Forgiveness is a term performed by someone when they are genuinely accepting an apology from someone who is sorry. Whether or not they accept that apology, is the simple thing that distinguishes justice from forgiveness. Although, justice and forgiveness do not go hand in hand. There are many other ways that these terms get interpreted incorrectly.

Humans depend on plants in numerous ways. One reason we depend on plants is for consumption. Plants have the unique ability of producing their own food through a process called photosynthesis. In this process, plants are able to produce macromolecules such as carbohydrates that cannot be produced in animals or humans. In humans, the only to gain these macromolecules is to consume plant matter, or consume plant-eating animals (herbivores).