Book helps you see flowers in a new light
"Seeing Flowers" (Timber Press, $29.95) looks at blooms in a way you probably never have.
Author Teri Dunn Chace and photographer Robert Llewellyn teamed up to explore flowers in intricate detail — the subtleties of their colors, the delicacy of their petals, the form of their leaves.
Llewellyn's photography forms the basis of the book. He created each photograph with a process that involved shooting smaller images at various points of focus and then combining them into a single photo using software developed for use with microscopes.
The result is a series of captivating, exquisitely detailed images, which Chace enhances with information about the plants.
Surprise! That lilac flower may be dinner fodder
Your next meal may be waiting right outside your back door this summer.
Ellen Zachos' "Backyard Foraging" (Storey Publishing, $16.95) introduces readers to common plants most people don't know are edible. Who knew you could eat lilac flowers, hosta shoots and the young stems of Japanese knotweed?
Zachos, who teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, describes the edible parts of 65 plants and tells how to harvest and eat them. Reading the book just might inspire you to stuff some rose of Sharon flowers for a dinner party or make a dry rub from juniper berries.
Akron beacon journal
