In the name of plants: from Attenborough to Washington, the people behind plant names

"In this beautiful book, botanist and popular writer Sandra Knapp explores the people behind plant genera, presenting little-known stories about both the featured plants and their eponyms, stunning photographs, and botanical drawings from the Natural History Museum in London's collections. Readers will see familiar plants in a new light after learning stories of espionage, heroism, rivalry, mystery, and inspiration that led to their naming. Take, for example, American botanist Alice Eastwood who has the yellow aster, Eastwoodia elegans, named after her. Eastwood was a pioneer, collecting in previously unexplored territories in the nineteenth century. She saved the type specimens of the California Academy of Sciences Academy's plant collection after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Or Pierre Magnol, a French botanist who became Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden in Montpellier. In 1703 a flowering tree from the island of Martinique was given the genus name Magnolia, in recognition of his botanical genius. Or the fern genus Gaga, named after the "Queen of Pop," Lady Gaga, whose translucent green heart-shaped attire, worn to the 2010 Grammy Awards, resembled a giant fern gametophyte - a key life stage in the fern reproductive cycle. Including thirty plants (and pop, historical, and scientific figures) from across the globe, this book is sure to both entertain and enlighten"--