The Botany of Desire (PBS, 2009)

[RainDog]

Based upon Michael Pollan's Book of the same name.
Four plants: Apples, Tulips, Cannabis and Potatoes and their evolution with human populations

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[dougolat]

1. Updated since the book came out!

Love it, stunning and thought-provoking, etc.
One quibble- it gives short-shrift to hemp's superlative fiber, oil, food, and erosion control qualities.

[RainDog]

2. agree. this is a wonderful documentary

I'd read a couple of books about tulip mania before I read Botany of Desire - the information on apples was great.

So much of our western botany seems to have begun in the area around the caspian sea - which borders Kazakhstan. That's also the area some anthropologists think was the origin of the celts that migrated to western Europe and lived there before the Roman conquests during Caesar's time.

I haven't a lot about the history of ethnobotany but it's a wonderful subject.

The public tulip gardens in the low countries in the spring are stunning.