In Flower Day, botanist and author Dr. Sandra Knapp walks through a day in a global garden, spotlighting 24 flowers from around the world, as attract pollinators, resist predators and survive on our ever changing planet. Each chapter introduces a single flower during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four different species from around the world.
Beginning at midnight, it’s the long tubular flowers of the moonflower, Ipomoea alba, attracting a frenzy of hawk moths before the dawn arrives and the flowers wither and collapse. As day breaks, dandelions and chicory open their heads, supplying flies and bees visit for energy to lay eggs and raise their young. At eight o’clock in the morning, the sun rises over the watery Amazon basin, the giant waterlily slowly turns from white to pink and purple. Trapped inside are the beetles who feasted on the flowers during the night. That evening, at seven o’clock, it’s the scent of night-blooming jessamine in the Caribbean…
Paired with detailed pen-and-ink illustrations by the artist Katie Scott depicting these unique moments in time, Knapp and Scott have created an engaging read for amateur botanists, gardeners, and anyone who appreciates flowers.
“Knapp’s beautiful flower essays will inspire every reader to look more closely at the world’s botanical wonders. Knapp’s descriptions abound with diversity: colour, shape, odour, height, size, sex habits, pollinators, fruits, seeds, patterns, longevity, and a wide array of cultural stories. Her chapters range from the enormous sago palm (as big as a Volkswagen Beetle) to the tiny hairgrass in Antarctica, and from our lust for orchids to our love-hate relationship with dandelions. These stories are beautifully written, with extraordinary illustrations, and every reader will come away with a greater admiration for all things floral.”—Meg Lowman, author of The Arbornaut
“Flower Day offers a glorious, round-the-clock glimpse into the incredible plant diversity on the planet. Centered on flowering, this book highlights how and why different plants flower at different times during the day. Flower Day masterfully intertwines botany, plant biology, history, evolution, and ecology of twenty-four species, highlighting reproductive biology of each. Anyone with even a cursory affinity for plants or curiosity about the natural world will appreciate this beautiful book.” —Allison Miller, Donald Danforth Plant
Science Center and Saint Louis University
Dr. Sandra Knapp is a senior research botanist at the Natural History Museum in London and Fellow of the Royal Society. Knapp is a specialist on the taxonomy of Solanaceae and has spent much time in the field in Central and South America collecting plants. She served as president of the Linnean Society from 2018 to 2022. She is the author of several books, including Extraordinary Orchids and In the Name of Plants (University of Chicago Press).
Katie Scott is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in publications including the New York Times and Nature. Also know for her commercial work, she has illustrated for corporate clients such as Hermès, Kew Gardens, Harrods, Soho House, Nike, Pernod Ricard, Phaidon, Universal Records and the BBC. She has illustrated several books, including Animalium and Botanicum.
Flower Day: A story of 24 hours and 24 floral lives (University of Chicago Press) will be released in the UK & US on the 3rd of April, 2025.