The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

by Michael Pollan

Plants began evolving burrs that attach to animal fur like Velcro, flowers that seduce honeybees in order to powder their thighs with pollen, and acorns that squirrels obligingly taxi from one forest to another, bury, and then, just often enough, forget to eat.

For a great many species today, “fitness” means the ability to get along in a world in which humankind has become the most powerful evolutionary force.