A garden of marvels : how we discovered that flowers have sex, leaves eat air, and other secrets of plants / Ruth Kassinger.

New York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2014]

xviii, 395 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

First edition.

Pt. I. Inside a plant -- Cocktail, anyone? -- The birth and long life of the vegetable lamb -- Through a glass, however darkly -- The persecuted professor -- Inside a plant -- Pt. II. Roots -- Restless roots -- The enormous gourd -- The way of all water -- How to kill a hickory -- Our fine fungal friends -- Arsenic and young fronds -- The once and future wheat -- Off to the races -- Pt. III. Leaves -- New beginnings -- A momentous mint -- Leaves eat air -- The vegetable slug -- Once in a blue-green moon -- The tenacity of trees -- Amazing grass -- Pt. IV. Flowers -- Sex in the garden -- Who needs Romeo? -- Black petunias -- The abominable mystery -- Cheap sex -- Scent and sex -- Pt. V. Onward, upward, and afterward -- Trouble in paradise -- Onward and upward -- Afterward.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [368]-379) and index.