Green Kingdom

The epic story of the plant kingdom, showing its staggering variety and ingenuity over half a billion years.

‘What an awesome book. Ben Dark is a master storyteller’ NIGEL SLATER

‘Utterly fascinating. I don't expect to read a better work of natural history this year’ BILL BRYSON

From the arrival of the first plants on land 484 million years ago to the globe-spanning diversity of flora we know today, Green Kingdom traces the evolution of plant life across eons and continents, reanimating the lost worlds that shaped its course and dramatically expanding our vision of what it means to be a plant.

Through the stories of sixteen plant families, from the humble bog moss to the exquisite adaptations of the orchid, we witness how plant life colonised land, pioneered leaves, recruited fungi, formed seeds, manipulated animals and ultimately came to dominate our planet. Some take us to unrecognisable Earths, buried under twelve thousand years of ice or hidden in the blackout of an asteroid winter, others to a defining event in the planet’s history, from volcanic chain eruptions and sudden glaciations to the gradual parting of continents.

Inhabiting the lives and minds of the adventurers, poets, philosophers and scientists who pieced this epic story together, Green Kingdom is both a hidden history of the Earth and a dynastic drama, as rich and unexpected as any story ever told.

‘With this new odyssey of plant evolution, Ben Dark emerges as a natural history writer of spectacular gifts’ NICOLA SHULMAN, author of Graven with Diamonds

‘Magnificently researched, captivatingly written . . . a profound yet joyfully entertaining read’ JONATHAN DRORI, author of Around the World in 80 Plants

‘Ben Dark is a fantastic writer and Green Kingdom is an extraordinary example of his brimming talent and a hugely enjoyable read’ MATT COLLINS, author of The Tree Atlas

‘A wondrous journey . . . Ben Dark engaged me every step of the way’ SUE STUART SMITH, author of The Well Gardened Mind

‘Ben Dark introduces us to characters with astonishing tales to tell. Unputdownable’ MARY KEEN, author of Diary of a Keen Gardener

‘An adventure story, a love story, a history, a celebration and a revelation of the wonders of plant life. An emerald marvel as rich as the kingdom it describes’ ROWAN HOOPER, author of Togetherness