The hidden protagonist of world history that we didn't know about until now,
How Plants Made History Alongside Humans

“If you’re looking for a book about plants, this one is enough.”
Choi Jae-cheon (Professor Emeritus, Department of Eco-Science, Ewha Womans University)

"Fun and informative! After reading it, you'll see the world differently."
Lee Jeong-mo (author of "Splendid Extinction," former director of the National Science Museum in Gwacheon)

*** A unique encyclopedia of plant world history encompassing history, art, and science.
*** Includes 160 detailed plant illustrations, classic paintings, and high-quality color photographs.
*** Highly recommended by Professor Choi Jae-cheon, Director Lee Jeong-mo, and Author Lee So-young!

Simon Barnes, who told us an interesting story about the world of animals in “A History of the World in 100 Animals,” is back with a story about plants.
"A World History Through 100 Plants" looks back on world history through the lens of plants, which have played a diverse role throughout human history.
As a veteran reporter with 30 years of experience, he has filled 100 plant stories with his extensive knowledge and vivid sense of the field.
It freely crosses history, art, and science, telling a colorful story you've never heard before.
A total of 160 detailed plant illustrations, classic paintings, and high-quality color photographs also add to the visual pleasure.

From the strangler fig tree that provided shade to the early humans to the endangered rainforests of today, it contains a vast story spanning the past, present, and future.
It covers not only familiar plants like apples, roses, and bamboo, but also rare and unusual plants like Venus flytraps, magic mushrooms, and Christmas trees.
The lush story of plants unfolds, always with us, creating history as we know it: sometimes as our daily bread, sometimes as gifts conveying gratitude and love, and sometimes as materials for building civilization.
After reading this book, you will see the world differently.

We humans think of ourselves as noble beings, possessing reason and transcending nature, possessing infinite abilities and acting like angels.
We have become god-like beings, and we are shaping the world as we wish.

But we humans still cannot live a single day without plants.
Our past is all related to plants.
Our present is also all related to plants.
Without plants, we have no future.
Here are the 100 reasons why.
---From "Entering"

The shade of this tree is incredibly extensive.
The shade cast by the branches extending from the trunk of a fully grown fig tree can reach a radius of 20 meters.
Dozens of people can rest under these branches.
Families and other groups can gather and rest in the shade without interfering with each other.
You can spend hours dozing off under the shade of a tree, eating, drinking, singing, socializing, flirting, talking, or making plans.
Human civilization began in the shade of trees, and especially enjoyed the shade of the strangler fig tree.
---From "001 The Strangled Fig Tree: All history begins in the shade of a tree"

Van Gogh's sunflower paintings from Arles are as famous as the Mona Lisa.
Each painting has been reproduced countless times in all sorts of forms, from t-shirts and towels to refrigerator magnets, and has become so commonplace that it's easy to overlook the sunflower itself.
But what's important is not the mythical life of the artist, which was painful.
The sunflower painting shows how overwhelming joy can be, and how terribly fragile such a heightened experience can be.
---From "008 Sunflower: Flowers Painted with Passion by Van Gogh"

Orchids are famous for their flowers.
As a reproductive organ of a plant, it has a distinct and flashy sexual appeal.
It is also praised for its exotic appearance, and evokes desire and obsession.
There is something excessive and dangerous about that yearning and obsession.
In the 19th century, the obsession with orchids that gripped many people was called orchidelirium.
There are hundreds of associations around the world devoted to orchid cultivation.
Charles Darwin wrote in a letter to his close friend, botanist Joseph Hooker, “The subject that has interested me most in my life is the orchid.”
---From "013 Orchid: A Plant Embraced by Desire and Obsession"

The large-scale destruction of rainforests is based on the idea that the reason they are so dense is because they provide extremely fertile land.
This is a wrong idea.
Tropical rainforests are clearly very hot and humid, and have maintained that environment for over 50 million years.
Constant temperature and humidity, along with dense forests, intertwine to form a surprisingly complex interdependent system.
The reason rainforests are so dense is not because of the soil, but because of the forest itself.
The seeds fall to the forest floor and sprout again.
Yet, humans are still destroying the forests, making them uninhabitable.
As you eat Brazil nuts, let's briefly experience, not just in your head but in your stomach, the immense benefits that the rainforest provides us with that we can't even expect anywhere else.
---From "014 Brazil Nut Tree: A Gift from the Rainforest"

Charles Darwin said that the Venus flytrap was one of the most wonderful plants in the world.
He fed the flytrap roast beef and boiled eggs to see how it would react.
Since its widespread popularity, the Parisian hell has continuously captured the human imagination.
There have also been stories of carnivorous plants that further expand on the characteristics of those plants that eat meat.
Not many people have read John Wyndham's 1951 novel The Day of the Triffid or seen the 1962 film of the same name, but a plant that has a vaguely threatening and frightening appearance is commonly called a triffid.
---From "027 Paris Hell: Carnivorous Plants That Threaten Our Cognition"

The tulip mania of enormous scale gave rise to countless stories and legends of luxury.
There were stories of land over 48,560 square meters being used to buy a single bulb, a single bulb being sold for ten times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman, a single bulb changing hands ten times a day, and the only purpose being to buy and sell bulbs without planting them.
There is even a story that a sailor stole the bulbs and roasted them for breakfast, not knowing how much they cost.
It's a hard story to believe, because tulip bulbs are so nasty.
The various varieties of tulips were given increasingly fanciful names, such as General and Admiral.
The most expensive of these is the Semper Augustus, described as “white in color, with a dark red pattern at the top that has an unquenchable flame.”
Who could resist a tulip like this?
---From "077 Tulip: A Beauty That Doesn't Exist in the Wild"

Every year, huge trucks from across the United States transport buzzing hives of bees to the Central Valley.
Once there, the bees pollinate the flowers.
It is the largest artificial pollination event in the world.
At this time, about 1.4 million beehives gather there.
Two hives are required per 4,050 square meters of area, and each hive costs $200.
In recent years, prices have skyrocketed due to colony collapse (a phenomenon in which queen bees and larvae die en masse when worker bees go out to collect honey and do not return - translator's note).
The cause of this phenomenon, which adversely affects beehives, is not clearly known, and there is no simple solution.
When you leave the Central Valley after an event, it's common to lose about a third of the hives you brought with you.
It is difficult to restore the number of lost hives.

---From "085 Almond Tree: The Dilemma Facing the Almond Industry"