KOCE reran The Botany of Desire last night. I didn’t rewatch it but I have notes. Notes that I was going to type up when it originally aired but then was distracted by a capella dudes known as Straight, No Chaser. So let’s see how much I can decipher and write up into coherent sentences…
The Botany of Desire is based on a book by Michael Pollan. Take a quick peek at his Wikipedia page and at the top, you are greeted with this italicized comment:
This article is about the author and food activist. For the Monty Python actor with a similar name, see Michael Palin.
So really: all you need to know. Most of his books are about food and not Bicycle Repairman. However, to throw you a curve, The Botany of Desire is about plants and how they evolved with humans. The four plants represent four human desires: Apple=Sweet, Tulip=Beauty, Cannabis=Intoxication, and Potato=Control.
I will know begin an extended “What did I learn…?” segment by trying to figure out my handwriting in my notebook. So enjoy some random facts!
Apples: Johnny Appleseed brought Hard Cider to the West. Trees may not be the same as the trees that gave the seeds. Apples came from Kazakhstan. Fruit of Knowledge from The Bible most likely a pomegranate and not an apple. “The problem is that it’s boring. Sweetness. If that’s all you get.” Someone likes their women spicy!
Tulips: A garden in the Netherlands has around 2,300 varieties. Angiosperm means plants that produce flowers (I verified this on Dictionary.com). Wild tulips came up through Central Asia. 1634-1637 was known as “Tulip Mania” in the Netherlands (Disclosure: I can’t remember if that was my term or Michael Pollan’s). There are places known as “Plant Brothels” where new varieties of tulips are made. I definitely can’t take credit for “Plant Brothels”.
Cannabis: The only known people who don’t have intoxicants are the Inuits because nothing grows in the snow (I find that hard to believe. I’m sure there’s some blubber wine or something that they’re hiding from us). The female of the cannabis species produces the psychoactive resin. They keep them away from males so that they produce more resin. Yes, growers are keeping their lady plants hot and bothered for our psychoactive pleasure.
Potatoes: Originated in the Andes Mountains. In the wild, potatoes are poisonous if they turn green. The potato helped move people north because it did well in crappy weather and soil. The Irish planted only one kind of potato and then a ship from South America brought a fungus that killed that one variety. Potato Famine! This gives Pollan more ammunition in his anti-monoculture stance. Grow lots of varieties he says. McDonald’s not helping with this: they only use Russet Burbank potatoes. Those Monocultural Monsters…
Final The Botany of Desire quotes from Michael Pollan: “Get away from monoculture.” “Nature resists our control.” “I’m Michael J. Fox’s brother-in-law.”
OK, he didn’t say that last one but according to Wikipedia he’s Tracy Pollan’s brother. And not, in any way, related to Michael Palin.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com
