Flora Unveiled - The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants

Sex in animals has been known for at least ten thousand years, and this knowledge was put to good use during animal domestication in the Neolithic period. In stark contrast, sex in plants wasn't discovered until the late 17th century, long after the domestication of crop plants. Even after its discovery, the "sexual theory" continued to be hotly debated and lampooned for another 150 years, pitting the "sexualists" against the "asexualists". Why was the notion of sex in plants so contentious for so long? "Flora Unveiled" is a deep history of perceptions about plant gender and sexuality, beginning in the Ice Age and ending in the middle of the nineteenth century, with the elucidation of the complete plant life cycle. Linc and Lee Taiz show that a gender bias that plants are unisexual and female (a "one-sex model") prevented the discovery of plant sex and delayed its acceptance long after the theory was definitively proven. The book explores the various sources of this gender bias, beginning with women's role as gatherers, crop domesticators, and the first farmers. In the myths and religions of the Bronze and Iron Ages, female deities were strongly identified with flowers, trees, and agricultural abundance, and during Middle Ages and Renaissance, this tradition was assimilated into Christianity in the person of Mary. The one-sex model of plants continued into the Early Modern Period, and experienced a resurgence during the eighteenth century Enlightenment and again in the nineteenth century Romantic movement. Not until Wilhelm Hofmeister demonstrated the universality of sex in the plant kingdom was the controversy over plant sex finally laid to rest. Although "Flora Unveiled" focuses on the discovery of sex in plants, the history serves as a cautionary tale of how strongly and persistently cultural biases can impede the discovery and delay the acceptance of scientific advances.

List of contents

• Preface


• Chapter 1: The Quandary Over Plant Sex


• Chapter 2: The Discovery of Sex


• Chapter 3: Crop Domestication and Gender


• Chapter 4: Plant-Female Iconography in Neolithic Europe


• Chapter 5: Sacred Trees and Enclosed Gardens


• Chapter 6: Mystic Plants and Aegean Nature Goddesses


• Chapter 7: The "Plantheon" of Greek Mythology


• Chapter 8: Plant Sex from Empedocles to Theophrastus


• Chapter 9: Roman Assimilation of Greek Myths and Botany


• Chapter 10: From Herbals to Walled Gardens: Plant Gender and Iconography


• Chapter 11: Troubadours, Romancing the Rose, and the Rebirth of Naturalism


• Chapter 12: The Difficult Birth of the Two-Sex Model


• Chapter 13: Plant Nuptials in the Linnaean Era


• Chapter 14: Behind the Green Door: Love and Lust in Eighteenth Century Botany


• Chapter 15: Wars of the Roses: Ideology versus Experiment


• Chapter 16: Idealism and Asexualism in the Age of Goethe


• Chapter 17: Sex and the Single Cryptogam


• Chapter 18: Flora's Enclosed Gardens

About the author

Lincoln Taiz is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. He has published over a hundred and fifty research papers on a broad range of topics in plant physiology, and is the co-author of the standard textbook in the field, Plant Physiology and Development, currently in its sixth edition.

Lee Taiz, a research biologist specializing in electron microscopy, co-authored numerous papers on plant biology and on the history of science while on the staff of the Cell and Molecular Biology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her paintings, primarily on botanical subjects, have been exhibited widely, and appear in books, periodicals, and exhibition catalogs.

Summary

Sex in animals has been known for at least ten thousand years, and this knowledge was put to good use during animal domestication in the Neolithic period. In stark contrast, sex in plants wasn't discovered until the late 17th century, long after the domestication of crop plants. Even after its discovery, the "sexual theory" continued to be hotly debated and lampooned for another 150 years, pitting the "sexualists" against the "asexualists". Why was the notion of sex in plants so contentious for so long? "Flora Unveiled" is a deep history of perceptions about plant gender and sexuality, beginning in the Ice Age and ending in the middle of the nineteenth century, with the elucidation of the complete plant life cycle.

Linc and Lee Taiz show that a gender bias that plants are unisexual and female (a "one-sex model") prevented the discovery of plant sex and delayed its acceptance long after the theory was definitively proven. The book explores the various sources of this gender bias, beginning with women's role as gatherers, crop domesticators, and the first farmers. In the myths and religions of the Bronze and Iron Ages, female deities were strongly identified with flowers, trees, and agricultural abundance, and during Middle Ages and Renaissance, this tradition was assimilated into Christianity in the person of Mary. The one-sex model of plants continued into the Early Modern Period, and experienced a resurgence during the eighteenth century Enlightenment and again in the nineteenth century Romantic movement. Not until Wilhelm Hofmeister demonstrated the universality of sex in the plant kingdom was the controversy over plant sex finally laid to rest. Although "Flora Unveiled" focuses on the discovery of sex in plants, the history serves as a cautionary tale of how strongly and persistently cultural biases can impede the discovery and delay the acceptance of scientific advances.

Additional text

Flora Unveiled is not only a scholarly work of great erudition, it is a true labour of love, and deserves to be read by all (not just the plant-minded). The authors are to be congratulated in giving us such an accomplished botanical detective story.

Product details

• Authors: Lee Taiz, Lincoln Taiz, Lincoln (Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Taiz, Taiz Lee, Taiz Lincoln
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2017
• EAN: 9780190490263
• ISBN: 978-0-19-049026-3
• No. of pages: 544
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Botany; SCIENCE / History, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Botany, History of Science, Plant Ecology, Botany and plant sciences, Plant Reproduction & Propagation