I have to confess that (aside from a handful of dusty old memories from school biology textbooks) the finer details of botanical reproduction have always managed to pass me by without much resistance. Much was my surprise, therefore, when I found myself unintentionally making loud exclamations with each turn of the page whilst flicking through Pollen: The Hidden Sexuality of Flowers.
Apparently, far from being microscopic irritants that make me sneeze during the summer, pollen grains are some of the natural world’s most fascinating and beautifully designed objects. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t happen to know this unless you could see the world through a microscope. Thankfully then, photographer Rob Kesseler and leading botanist Madeline Harley have combined their talents to produce a book which reveals a side of nature which you feel genuinely privileged to witness. There is something quite alien about the world around us which is too small to see, and this book manages to capture both the fantasy and the science of that world.
I now realise that if the textbooks I read at school had contained just a modicum of the interest of Pollen, my knowledge of biology would be considerably less dusty. This is an ideal title for all botanists and those just looking for an enjoyable bit of intellectual spring cleaning. Also recommended is Seeds: Time Capsules of Life, which also contains photography by Rob Kesseler.