David George Haskell’s new book How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries

From our perfumes to home decor, modern humans live in a floral world—but we haven’t always.

argues that flowers have an incredibly overlooked history of diversity, community and some truly extraordinary evolutionary paths. “Roses evolved their aromas millions of years before humans even existed on this planet, mostly to speak to bumblebees and other insects,” Haskell tells Scientific American. “And yet we have constructed hundred-million-dollar industries around extracting rose.... We’re attracted to the appearance and the aromas of other humans because those are our friends and our family and our mates. But roses, really? We humans are so ridiculous in that way, devoting ourselves to things that evolved for other purposes. So it’s ridiculous at one level, but at another level, I think it’s really deeply beautiful.” http://spklr.io/6008Eubdp