Overview

On this blue planet, long before pterodactyls took to the skies and tyrannosaurs prowled the continents, tiny green organisms populated the ancient oceans. Fossil and phylogenetic evidence suggests that chlorophyll, the green pigment responsible for coloring these organisms, has been in existence for some 85% of Earth's long history-that is, for roughly 3.5 billion years. In How the Earth Turned Green, Joseph E. Armstrong traces the history of these verdant organisms, which many would call plants, from their ancient beginnings to the diversity of green life that inhabits the Earth today. Using an evolutionary framework, How the Earth Turned Green addresses questions such as: Should all green organisms be considered plants? Why do these organisms look the way they do? How are they related to one another and to other chlorophyll-free organisms? How do they reproduce? How have they changed and diversified over time? And how has the presence of green organisms changed the Earth's ecosystems? More engaging than a traditional textbook and displaying an astonishing breadth, How the Earth Turned Green will both delight and enlighten embryonic botanists and any student interested in the evolutionary history of plants.

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9780226069630

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Reviews

Armstrong . . . aims his book squarely at plant-blind readers, who see plants as just a green background to life. . . . [He] deftly entertains his readers with a balanced discussion of plant life on Earth, from cyanobacteria and stromatolites to flowering plants. . . . How the Earth Turned Green will make many a reader aware of the importance of plants to the history of this planet. --J. Valauskas, Curator of Rare Books, Library, Chicago Botanic Garden Current Books on Gardening and Botany

Armstrong has opened a door to the sprawling majesty of plant biology and evolution in a way that informs without drudgery, infuses knowledge with example without pedantry, and lightens the heart with a fine sense of humor. This book should be read by anyone who can sense that the world around us is predominantly green. --Karl J. Niklas, Cornell University coauthor of Plant Physics

Armstrong has written an amazing and wonderful book. It is so well written that it reads more like an engaging novel--one that readers cannot put down--than like a science book. Yet the style is not reduced or simplified science; instead, the author explains all this factual material with prose that is precise, accurate, and concise. The topics range from cosmology to the flowering plants (angiosperms), but this vertical track is accomplished without deviating from the essential task of describing the evolutionary history of photosynthesizing organisms and their relations to planet Earth. Along the way, readers are treated to a synthesis of fundamental stages in the evolution of life itself. This includes an excellent discussion about the origin of life, an even better explanation of the origins of autotrophy in prokaryotes, and a very good description of the endosymbiotic theory. The text is followed by a 141-page appendix that describes all the major photosynthetic groups (including bacteria). This is an exceedingly useful resource for students, which, to this reviewer's knowledge, does not exist anywhere else in such a compact form. Essential. --P. K. Strother, Boston College Choice

Practicing or apprenticing botanists, plant biologists, agronomists, and horticulturists need a detailed understanding of the evolution of plants for a correct perspective on the organisms they study and use, but the current general textbooks provide an inadequate watered-down history. In How the Earth Turned Green, through the knowledge, skill, and friendly writing of Armstrong and the wisdom of the University of Chicago Press, we finally have a book to fill this gap. Its eleven chapters--the final two about the flowering plants--tell the whole story, backed up by a detailed and illustrated appendix on fossil and living ancestors going back to the green algae and cyanobacteria. An essential book for plant students and professionals. --David Lee, Florida International University author of Nature s Palette: The Science of Plant Color

Practicing or apprenticing botanists, plant biologists, agronomists, and horticulturists need a detailed understanding of the evolution of plants for a correct perspective on the organisms they study and use, but the current general textbooks provide an inadequate watered-down history. In How the Earth Turned Green , through the knowledge, skill, and friendly writing of Armstrong and the wisdom of the University of Chicago Press, we finally have a book to fill this gap. Its eleven chapters--the final two about the flowering plants--tell the whole story, backed up by a detailed and illustrated appendix on fossil and living ancestors going back to the green algae and cyanobacteria. An essential book for plant students and professionals. --David Lee, Florida International University author of Nature's Palette: The Science of Plant Color

Practicing or apprenticing botanists, plant biologists, agronomists, and horticulturists need a detailed understanding of the evolution of plants for a correct perspective on the organisms they study and use, but the current general textbooks provide an inadequate watered-down history. In How the Earth Turned Green, through the knowledge, skill, and friendly writing of Armstrong and the wisdom of the University of Chicago Press, we finally have a book to fill this gap. Its eleven chapters the final two about the flowering plants tell the whole story, backed up by a detailed and illustrated appendix on fossil and living ancestors going back to the green algae and cyanobacteria. An essential book for plant students and professionals. --David Lee, Florida International University author of Nature s Palette: The Science of Plant Color

Author Information

Joseph E. Armstrong is an award-winning teacher, professor of botany, head curator of the Vasey Herbarium, and director of the Organismal Biology and Public Outreach Sequence for Biological Sciences Majors, all at Illinois State University.

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