We live in a world of seeds. From our morning coffee to the cotton in our clothes, seeds support diets, economies, lifestyles, and civilizations. In The Triumph of Seeds, award-winning conservation biologist Thor Hanson builds on his own triumph in Feathers—itself a masterwork of natural and cultural history—to explore seeds as both a natural phenomenon and a human one.

Spanning locations ranging from the Raccoon Lodge—Hanson’s backyard writing hideout-cum-laboratory—to the coffee plantations of the Amazon, from our flower patches and backyard gardens to the spice routes of Kerala, The Triumph of the Seeds is a book of knowledge, adventure, and wonder by an enchanting writer who embodies both the charm of stories told by the fireside at an old country store and the hard-won expertise of a professor of field biology. A worthy heir to the grand tradition of Aldo Leopold and Bernd Heinrich, this book is essential reading for anyone who loves to see a plant grow.