How Flowers Made our World

This is an in-person event only. There is no live stream.

(The talk will be followed by a book sale/signing and drinks reception in our historic library, where a paid bar will be available.)

Flowers are revolutionaries. When flowering plants evolved, they swiftly transformed the planet, and their productivity sustains much of life today. Flowers also shaped human biological and cultural evolution. They catalyzed our origins on the grasslands of Africa, feed us today, and at the center of many cultural rituals from perfume to burial.

The study of flowers, especially the work of Carl Linneaus, was the foundation for modern biological classification and the discovery of evolution. Yet, our culture often dismisses flowers as merely ornamental. Instead, they belong at the center of the story of how our world came to be.

Flowers are great cooperators, uniting plants, fungi, and animals into fruitful collaborations. They are also innovators, using radical genetic flexibility to thrive in a changing world. Illusion is also an important part of the story of flowers, from the deceptive displays offered by some blooms to the hidden costs of modern horticulture.

Using examples from his latest book, , David Haskell will illuminate the many ways that we live on a floral planet.

David George Haskell is a writer and biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His most recent book, , explores the creative powers of flowering plants. Haskell is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, for The Forest Unseen and Sounds Wild and Broken. His book The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal. He is recipient of an Award in Literature from American Academy of Arts and Letters. Haskell has also written essays and multimedia experiences for The New York Times, Emergence Magazine, and other venues. Educated at the University of Oxford (BA, Zoology) and Cornell University (PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), he is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim Fellow, and is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences at Emory University. Born in London, he now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Concessions

Please buy the concession ticket if you are:

• 65 years of age, or over
• Under 26 years of age
• Currently in receipt of UK government benefit (including, but not limited to, Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit, and Universal Credit).
• Currently in full-time education.

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This is an in-person event at the Linnean Society of London on Piccadilly, London, only.

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