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Unforgettable! Prepare yourself for a feast… you will not be disappointed! --BBC Wildlife, March 2005
Remarkable! Lavishly illustrated with its blown-up images of pollen grains and their parent plants. --Nature, December 2, 2004
An exploration into a mysterious, microscopic world. A visual feast! --Country Life, January 13, 2005
Remarkable! Lavishly illustrated with its blown-up images of pollen grains and their parent plants. --Nature, December 2, 2004
An exploration into a mysterious, microscopic world. A visual feast! --Country Life, January 13, 2005
Nature, December 2, 2004
Remarkable! Lavishly illustrated with its blown-up images of pollen grains and their parent plants.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has done much to banish my antipathy to pollen. Yes the fertile dust might make my life a misery for a few weeks each year - but it is just so beautiful. Kesseler and Harley, artist and scientist, have taken on a remarkable challenge. To present the intimate details of a plant's sex life in the context of the aesthetics of the containers of sperm.
The book opens with a gentle reminder of half forgotten biology lessons. The sex life of plants is taken far from the dry textbook and into a lush world of colour and improbably complex shapes. Images that have been mediated through computers from the electron microscope manage to take on the sensuality and eroticism of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. The anther of the Witch Hazel peers like the eye of a crab; cowslip presents a turtle-faced grain and the common daisy has pollen that could double as a space ship.
Perhaps the most delightful section of the book is the series of paired images of pollen and flowers - the microscopic detail of the pollen as stunning as the more accessible beauty of the plant itself.
Pollen is so small. It was only in the late seventeenth century that it was identified as the stuff of life. Madeline Harley, an internationally renowned expert on pollen, takes us through the history of discovery, right up to the developments in microscopy that have allowed the exquisite forms to be revealed.
While Harley's interest is understandable, artist Rob Kesseler's obsession is quite surprising. He has been collecting, preparing and studying plants and their pollen for years. He worked recently at Kew Gardens where he strung banners, featuring hugely magnified grains of pollen, among the trees.
One of the most delightful aspects if this book is that it is obviously the result of a very genuine collaboration; an artist sensitive to the world of science and a scientist with an acute aesthetic awareness for the world she studies.
And we would all do well to listen to one of Kesseler's closing comments, a sentiment that he has quite obviously taken to heart. "Perhaps we have lost the habit and the pleasure of looking for its own sake, as a first step towards a detailed understanding."
The book opens with a gentle reminder of half forgotten biology lessons. The sex life of plants is taken far from the dry textbook and into a lush world of colour and improbably complex shapes. Images that have been mediated through computers from the electron microscope manage to take on the sensuality and eroticism of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. The anther of the Witch Hazel peers like the eye of a crab; cowslip presents a turtle-faced grain and the common daisy has pollen that could double as a space ship.
Perhaps the most delightful section of the book is the series of paired images of pollen and flowers - the microscopic detail of the pollen as stunning as the more accessible beauty of the plant itself.
Pollen is so small. It was only in the late seventeenth century that it was identified as the stuff of life. Madeline Harley, an internationally renowned expert on pollen, takes us through the history of discovery, right up to the developments in microscopy that have allowed the exquisite forms to be revealed.
While Harley's interest is understandable, artist Rob Kesseler's obsession is quite surprising. He has been collecting, preparing and studying plants and their pollen for years. He worked recently at Kew Gardens where he strung banners, featuring hugely magnified grains of pollen, among the trees.
One of the most delightful aspects if this book is that it is obviously the result of a very genuine collaboration; an artist sensitive to the world of science and a scientist with an acute aesthetic awareness for the world she studies.
And we would all do well to listen to one of Kesseler's closing comments, a sentiment that he has quite obviously taken to heart. "Perhaps we have lost the habit and the pleasure of looking for its own sake, as a first step towards a detailed understanding."
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Another stunner
6 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book and the companion book "Seeds" will wow both professionals and layman. Buy it just for the beauty of the superb photos or for the detailed data. Lay these books out on the coffee table and you can be sure they will be picked up over and over again. The photos mezmerize with the sheer magnitude of nature's design.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A gorgeous display of full-page close up images
8 May 2007
Format:Hardcover
Rob Kesseler and Madeline Harley's POLLEN: THE HIDDEN SEXUALITY OF FLOWERS (1554072190, $60.00) represents a collaborative effort between an artist and a scientist who use an electron microscope to reveal the intricate structures and diversity of pollen. The sequence of events from pollination to fertilization and ways in which pollen affects daily lives is revealed in a gorgeous display of full-page close up images and facts: perfect for the general-interest collection.
Outstanding!
15 Mar 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Abundant gorgeous electron micrographs and other photography coupled with easy to understand scientifically accurate written material make this book a winner in my collection of nature books. I learned amazing things about pollen - especially interesting since I'm allergic to so many of them. Otherworldly visuals make the written info come to life and the writing beautifully illuminates the mysteries of what you're looking at; A scientist/artist pairing made in heaven. Worth every penny!
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