The Sceptical Botanist
Separating Fact from Fiction
By: Tim Entwisle
Beautifully crafted essays that explore everyday questions about plants and gardens.
Do trees talk to one another? Can a plant use up the oxygen in a room while you sleep? What is a native plant and what is a weed? Are some plants truly immortal? + Full description
Through 50 beautifully crafted essays, former director of preeminent botanic gardens and self-confessed plant punk Tim Entwisle shines a gentle light on everyday questions about plants and gardens, guiding the reader through fact and fiction.
Including the best of his contributions to gardening magazines and newspapers over four decades, as well as 24 pieces written specially for this book, The Sceptical Botanist is a tour de force of investigative writing from one of Australia’s most thoughtful and inquisitive botanical minds.
Pick up The Sceptical Botanist and you’ll never look at a plant or garden in the same way again!
"A humane and humorous foray into the world of plants, their relationships with people, and revealingly, into the mind of a sceptical botanist.
These short essays contain so many important and enjoyable insights. From vexed questions about GM foods and whether trees are intelligent, to his delightful personal experiences across the botanical world, Entwisle is a confident explorer and guide. Whether he’s exploring our relationships with plants, the way that scientists think, or the reasons for some very unnatural beliefs about nature, his humour, integrity and lightly-worn knowledge shine through."
– Professor Jonathan Drori, CBE, Author, Former Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
News
This title is temporarily out of stock and reprinting, with stock due in early September.
Reviews
"Author and botanist Tim Entwisle is the perfect writer to explore these topics, having spent a combined 30 years as the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in both Sydney and Melbourne. He has a keen eye and a dry wit, both of which I appreciate. And while many of his essays have an Australian bent, The Sceptical Botanist is a great read for anyone who loves green and growing things."
Justine E. Hausheer, Cool Green Science, 4 August 2025
"Interspersed with delightful cartoon illustrations by his son Jerome, Tim dispels some common myths about plants and gardens with humour and insight."
Carole Gridley, Gardening Australia, August 2025
Details
Paperback | August 2025 | $ 39.99ISBN: 9781486318216 | 272 pages | 210 x 135 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Illustrations
ePDF | August 2025
ISBN: 9781486318223
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
ePUB | August 2025
ISBN: 9781486318230
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
Features
- Curates 50 thought-provoking, gently provocative, quirky and captivating essays on the myths of plants and gardens.
- Scholarly but always witty and fun, with light-hearted cartoons by Jerome Entwisle.
- Dispels myths and unpicks taboos, with good humour and a lightness of touch.
- Covers a variety of topics associated with gardening, including ‘What makes plants tick?’, ‘Plants from elsewhere’, ‘Garden plants and landscapes’, ‘Gardening with convictions’ and ‘Observing and cataloguing nature’.
Contents
Preface1 What makes plants tick?
2 Plants from elsewhere
3 Garden plants and landscapes
4 Gardening with convictions
5 Observing and cataloguing nature
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
View the full table of contents (PDF, 175 KB).
Authors
Professor Tim Entwisle is a highly respected botanist, broadcaster and author, with over 30 years’ experience as head of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and Melbourne, and in a senior role at Kew Gardens in London. He is also the author of Sprinter and Sprummer.
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