‘The New Oxford Book of Food Plants’: For the scientific gardener, it’s fruitful reading

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Here is a cool gift for all those new backyard vegetable growers who sent seed sales skyrocketing this year: It’s the second edition of ‘The New Oxford Book of Food Plants,’ a weighty tome with the thin, smooth pages you might remember from college textbooks and handsome old-fashioned drawings of a variety of edible plants.

This is the book to buy for the urban farming friend/spouse/parent/sibling fascinated by the science of gardening. It’s set up encyclopedia-style with each entry describing the plant’s scientific name, nutritional value, where it hails from and how it might be cooked. (Watermelon is a native of tropical and subtropical Africa?) Plant groupings include ‘Brambles and Related Berries,’ ‘Nut Trees of Temperate Climates’ and ‘Chinese and Japanese Fruits.’ Oddly, bananas and strawberries get their very own pages.

This edition includes 20-plus plants missing from the first edition, including betel nut, star anise, lemongrass, Chinese kale and pineapple guava (which happens to be a nice ornamental too).

The book hits stores Oct. 8, but you can see more lovely illustrations — including ‘Plants for Alcoholic Drinks’ — after the jump.

Cherries above, ‘Plants for Alcoholic Drinks’ below.

-- Deborah Netburn

Photo and illustrations courtesy of Oxford University Press