Review by Choice Review
One could not ask for a more thorough, authoritative, and well-researched treatment of the relationship between plants, people, and culture than this extensive treatise compiled and edited by Balick (New York Botanical Garden). Pohnpei is a major Micronesian center of botanical endemism with a rich, biodiversity-dependent history and culture. Pristine and managed landscapes have been utilized by generations of humans on this island and its outlying atolls. The first chapter introduces the island and its vegetation. The following five chapters discuss the major plants that sustain Pohnpeian culture: yam, breadfruit, banana, taro, and the plant that is used for making kava. The next chapter describes traditional medicine, and is followed by a very extensive chapter titled "Local Uses of Plants and Fungi on Pohnpei: An Ethnobotanical Compendium." This chapter (over 300 pages), organized by major plant groups and alphabetically by plant families, comprises the major part of the book. The volume contains well-referenced chapters, a glossary, a checklist of Pohnpeian vascular plants, and not least, many excellent color photographs. It achieves its goal of giving readers a sense of still-existing traditional ethnobotanical knowledge in Micronesia, and an awareness of its unfortunate vulnerability to modernization. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and general readers. L. G. Kavaljian California State University, Sacramento
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review