Preface / Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson -- [pt. 1]. A passion for plants -- Orchid fever / Susan Orlean -- Smelling like a rose / Sharman Apr Russell -- The language of flowers / Isabel Allende -- Ode to mold / Claudia Lewis -- Mulch / Linda Hasselstrom -- Wedding day / Zora Neale Hurston -- Huckleberries / Annick Smith -- Columbine / Elaine Scarry -- Mint snowball / Naomi Shihab Nye -- [pt. 2]. Keepers of the plants : native women -- Bamboo / Linda Hogan -- My world is out there / Linda Yamane -- Corn mother / Anita Endrezze -- Peyote / Mary Crow Dog -- The woman I love is a planet; the planet I love is a tree / Paula Gunn Allen -- Maize / Rigoberta Menchú -- Alder / Teresa tsimmu Martino -- La limpia / Louise M. Wisechild -- [pt. 3]. Collecting myself -- Fate of the wise women / Jeanne Achterberg -- The grass / Marjory Stoneman Douglas -- Plantswomen / Trish Maharam -- The nature of this flower is to bloom / Alice Walker -- State of grace / Molly Peacock -- [pt. 4]. The science of green -- Earth's green mantle / Rachel Carson -- Barbara McClintock / Sharon Bertsch McGrayne -- Living downstream / Sandra Steingraber -- Radioactive tumbleweeds / Lesa Quale -- My life with weed / Linda Jean Shepherd -- [pt. 5]. The forest for the trees -- Dreaming of trees / dr Kathleen Norris -- For the maples / Laura Bowers Foreman -- Rain forest / Diane Ackerman -- Index, a mountain / Carolyn Kizer -- House of wood / Stephanie Kaza -- Killing our elders / Brenda Peterson -- [pt. 6]. Flora for Fauna -- Living medicine for animals / Donna Kelleher -- Visions of Caliban / Jane Goodall and Dale Peterson -- Miriam Rothschild : through the eyes of a butterfly / Mary Troychak -- The flooded forest / Catherine Caufield -- The twilight zone / Sylvia Earle -- The importance of the whale in the field of iris / Pattiann Rogers.