The Plant Messiah

Impressive, gripping and important . . . Some 30,000 plants have recorded uses for humans. Most people, the messiah preaches, are blind to these everyday miracles. This book will teach them to see

Economist

For anyone who might have considered plants dull stuff, Mr. Magdalena delivers a thrilling and inspirational account of adventures in the botanical world.

Wall Street Journal

In a world whose ecology is changing so fast, only a special kind of obsessive would concern himself with saving endangered plant species. That's Magdalena... who recounts adventures that have taken him from the Amazon to the jungles of Mauritius on a quest to preserve as much flora as he can.

New York Times Book Review

An engaging piece of work

Charles Elliott, Literary Review

Eye-popping... The Plant Messiah reads like a detective novel. [This] is a thrillingly uplifting book. There is a beguiling energy to his prose that clearly he has in person

Daily Mail

Botany, on its face, doesn't sound particularly thrilling. This book will change your mind

Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of 'Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet' and 'Radio Free Vermont'

An entertaining, planterly romp around the world and a glimpse inside one of the world's great botanical institutions from this Kew botanist

Jane Owen, Financial Times

[I]t is fascinating to follow Magdalena as he travels from remote Australian billabongs full of rare water lilies to the dry forests of western Peru, where the last gnarled huarango trees grow in the shadow of the Andes. But the greater accomplishment of The Plant Messiah is the compelling case that Magdalena makes from caring about plants in general.

Los Angeles Times

Carlos Magdalena is Kew's codebreaker

Telegraph