The Quiet Extinction
248 pages, 6 x 9
15 halftones
Paperback
Release Date:22 Oct 2015
ISBN:9780816531066
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The Quiet Extinction

Stories of North America’s Rare and Threatened Plants

The University of Arizona Press
In the United States and Canada, thousands of species of native plants are edging toward the brink of extinction, and they are doing so quietly. They are slipping away inconspicuously from settings as diverse as backyards and protected lands. The factors that have contributed to their disappearance are varied and complex, but the consequences of their loss are immeasurable.

With extensive histories of a cast of familiar and rare North American plants, The Quiet Extinction explores the reasons why many of our native plants are disappearing. Curious minds will find a desperate struggle for existence waged by these plants and discover the great environmental impacts that could come if the struggle continues.

Kara Rogers relates the stories of some of North America’s most inspiring rare and threatened plants. She explores, as never before, their significance to the continent’s natural heritage, capturing the excitement of their discovery, the tragedy that has come to define their existence, and the remarkable efforts underway to save them. Accompanied by illustrations created by the author and packed with absorbing detail, The Quiet Extinction offers a compelling and refreshing perspective of rare and threatened plants and their relationship with the land and its people.
Kara Rogers has edited more than twenty books on topics in biomedicine and life sciences. She is the author of Out of Nature: Why Drugs from Plants Matter to the Future of Humanity and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers. She is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica.
List of Illustrations

Introduction
Whitebark Pine
Fraser Fir
Three Plants and Their Animals
Lost in the Wild
Mead’s Milkweed
Florida Torreya
Fickeisen Plains Cactus and Acuña Cactus
Penstemon
Golden Paintbrush
Hidden Value
The Northern Plants
Afterword

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
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