Practical Plants: Useful Survival Products, Unusual Foods, Wood & Protective Charms from Northern Australia and the World Tropics.

As a child growing up in the Victorian countryside, taking a walk with dogs and friends on the weekends, it seemed natural to pick up a stout gumtree stick and arm oneself against the poisonous serpents one sometimes encountered, to be used as a sword against imaginary, unseen threatening foes, or merely to swipe the heads off unsuspecting everlasting daisies. The selection of this implement is an act that I bel...