Nature's Magicians: How Leaves Conjure Up Our World

In this provocative reimagining of what it is to be a plant, an evolutionary biologist draws on a lifetime of research to offer a beguiling behind-the-scenes perspective on how plants really work—and how we truly depend on leaves for our survival. For readers of Entangled Life and An Immense World.

Leaves are so familiar that they are easy to overlook. Yet it is through leaves that plants perform their magic—not least building towers of wood from the unlikeliest of raw materials: carbon diox...