Seeds - Time Capsules of Life
by Rob Kesseler & Wolfgang Stuppy
Papadakis Publisher in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Seeds are the most complex organs plants ever produce. A major keystone in the evolution of land plants, the first seeds appeared some 360 million years ago. Since then they have developed into highly sophisticated propagules that enable plants to dominate the Earth's surface and conquer nearly every possible habitat from the Antarctic to the hottest deserts. The diversity of shapes and sizes encountered in seeds is nearly endless and ranges from the impressive Seychelles nut at nearly twenty kilos to the almost dust-like seeds of the orchids. No matter how small, packed into every seed is the complete genetic information needed to give rise to a new plant, may it be a tiny herb or a giant rainforest tree. True time capsules of life, seeds may travel thousands of kilometers and wait, if necessary, for hundreds of years before they germinate.
This lavishly illustrated book is the result of a collaboration between London-based artist Rob Kesseler and Wolfgang Stuppy, the Millennium Seed Bank's seed morphologist. Woven around the Millennium Seed Bank Project, "Seeds - Time Capsules of Life" presents a natural history of seeds illustrated with some of the most spectacular examples found in nature. The story begins with the evolution of seeds and fruits, discusses their structure and dispersal through space and time, and finally reveals the enormous role that seeds play nowadays in saving rare and threatened plants from extinction. The story ends with a chapter about the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSB).
Using seeds collected in the UK and many of the MSB Partner Countries, the highlight of the book are photographs taken with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that have subsequently been artistically enhanced by Rob Kesseler. For the first time ever, “Seeds – Time Capsules of Life” reveals the minute and breathtaking detail of seeds to the public eye and presents their natural history before a scientifically sound background.
Distribution:
The book has been published in the UK in July 2006 and is available directly from the Publisher (www.papadakis.net) or any bookshop in the country. An American edition has been published by Firefly in September 2006 and a German (translated) edition will be published by Delius Klasing in Germany in autumn 2007.
Reviews:
The book is a collaboration between Kesseler, an artist, and Stuppy, the seed morphologist at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, which provides the wondrous array of specimens. The stunning photographic exploration is complimented by a scholarly but highly readable account of plants' 360 million-year journey from early, spore-producing forms to seed plants that sustain us and our planet's terrestrial biomes today.
Phil Gates, BBC Wildlife Magazine,
"Seeds - Time capsule of Life" is a very impressive book, as a work of science as well as a work of art! It is very well written, beautifully illustrated and very well produced. Congratulations to the authors and publishers. I recommend this book to all botanists, scientists and amateurs alike. The price is more than right!
Frits Adema in Blumea 51(3), 2006
"Seeds - Time Capsules of Life" voted number one in survey of Top 10 coffee table books by Style at Home
Seeds: Time Capsules of Life by Rob Kesseler and Wolfgang Stuppy (Firefly Books, 2006) The images in this book are astounding, thanks to the latest in microphotography; full-page close-ups of millimeter-long seeds possess an almost alien beauty. These photos are accompanied by text explaining the function of the seeds' design; the book also explains topics such as basic seed botany, the evolution of seeds and how seeds are dispersed and contains a section on seed-inspired architecture. With a preface by the Prince of Wales, a keen supporter of conservation issues, and a chapter on the Millennium Seed Bank, which aims to gather some 24,000 species of seeds by 2010, this volume covers everything you could ever want to know about these astonishingly diverse feats of nature.
Style at Home (Canada), December 2006, www.styleathome.com
You’ve never seen botanical photography quite like this. At times it seems likely that the subjects under discussion were photographed on some distant planet. This visual disconnect is most likely the point: taking what we know and illustrating it in an unfamiliar way, a way that begs that we forget what information we thought we had in order to replace it with what we’re given. A kind of debriefing of the senses, if you will. And it works. Whatever words I give you here can not prepare you. I venture that a more beautiful and informative brace of botanically dedicated books have yet to be created.
Linda L. Richards, januarymagazine.com
Landmark effort of gorgeous photography and authoritative text. This is, in the truest sense of the word, a table-top masterpiece.
Ken Smith, London Free Press
264pp, £35.-; ISBN 1901092666 (hb)