The Green Mantle: An Investigation Into Our Lost Knowledge of Plants

Rating:
Summary: Our green mantle
Review: Ever since I researched my book "Tales of the Trees" I've been fascinated by the uses humans have made of plants throughout history. It's not just the practical uses - wood to build our houses, wheat, cabbages and apples to eat, oak for our ships - plants have had strong spiritual value too. Our religions have given us the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, the Ceiba tree of the Mayans, the Bodhi tree (fig) or Tree of Enlightenment of the Buddhist religion and "Yggdrasil' (ash) the Norse world tree whose roots reached the Underworld and whose branches reached the heavens. Then there were the sacred oaks of the Druids - don't get me started.
Michael Jordan (no, not the athlete) has put together a masterly piece of research into the uses, practical and spiritual, of trees, plants and herbs of all kinds, in civilizations around the world. The book is well illustrated, using many of Jordan's own photographs.
In his overview of great writings about herbs Jordan quotes Charlemagne's definition of a herb "The friend of physicians and the praise of cooks." The oldest existing record of the use of herbs in medicine comes from Babylonian times, some 1700 years before Christ. The Chinese, however, were probably the first people to write "herbals" or documents about the uses of herbs.
A Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, was the first European to take a stab at classifying plants in 372 BC. His work strongly influenced other botanists for almost 2000 years. As recently as the 18th century the use of herbs in medicine was very hit or miss. Some pain killers, such as salicin, from the willow, were well-known and effective. Other nostrums relied on superstition - haemorrhoids were treated with a plant called Lesser Celandine because its roots were the shape of haemorrhoids.
It wasn't till the early 19th century that pure drugs such as morphine and quinine were extracted from plants. Meanwhile from time immemorial housewives had been growing herbs in their gardens and treating their family's illnesses with lore learned from their mothers and grandmothers. The church and paid physicians were not happy about this so they resorted to burning a few "wise women" as witches.
But Jordan does not restrict himself to actual real plants, he has a whole chapter on "Plants of the Imagination" which looks at plants featured in legend and mythology. In the Middle Ages it was said that a Barnacle Tree existed whose fruits matured into birds. In England it was said to grow at the edge of the sea and its fruits were barnacle shellfish. When these matured and fell off they split open, grew feathers and became Barnacle geese.
In his conclusion Jordan looks at gardening throughout the ages and ponders the possible effects of global warming and climate change on our "Green Mantle". He is hopeful that a new respect for our land and our environment is emerging and that the plunder of the Green Mantle is becoming less acceptable. Yet we are still losing plant species throughout the world. The Sahara desert is encroaching on vast areas that once were green; the forests of South America are being slashed and burned at an insane pace.
Jordan is hopeful, as I am, that our headlong race to destroy our Green Mantle may have been checked slightly. We have more knowledge now and even a little more understanding. We have made some small steps towards preserving our plant heritage. Will it be enough to counter the forces of ignorance and greed?