Most times we leave our homes, we encounter plants of some kind. Flowers, shrubs, and trees are present even in urban environments. But few of us think about how these plants grow and attract pollinators and reproduce in a continuous cycle.

And things that are prickly and smelly get even less of our attention, unless we’re figuring out how to avoid them. But some plants have adapted strange and fascinating ways of surviving that deserve more notice. Author Ann McCallum Staats highlights some of the strangest in her book, Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants.

The book is broken down into four sections: The Big, The Bad, The Smelly, and The Exceptionally Strange. In each section, she provides fascinating facts about three different examples. For instance, the Bolivian water lily can grow up to 10 feet across, at the rate of 20 inches a day. And it floats on a stalk about 26 feet long, which Staats tells us is about as tall as four refrigerators stacked together

Then there’s skunk cabbage, which can heat its flowers up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, even when it’s cold outside. That ability, plus its stinky smell, helps it attract flies to pollinate it.

Staats also includes facts about how seeds germinate and grow, plants used as medicine, and how color and scent attract pollinators, as well as other interesting tidbits about flora. It’s all informative in a fun way. Fantastic Flora is sure to be a hit with a budding naturalist drawn to nonfiction. I recommend it for ages 8-12.

The author provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.