Botany for Herbalists

An essential guide to herbal botany for budding and experienced herbalists

Botany for Herbalists artfully combines history, science, and technique to provide a foundation in botanical knowledge for herbalists. In this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book in four parts, educator and herbalist Holly Poole-Kavana provides detailed information on:

• The importance of traditional and contemporary indigenous land practices
• An examination of the plant life cycle from seeds to flowers, including plant anatomy and functions
• Practical applications for the herbalist, including harvesting techniques and apothecary considerations
• Essential information on plant evolution, classification, nomenclature, and identification
• Comprehensive profiles of the most common medicinal plant families

A crucial book for anyone from the plant-curious to the herbal medicine practitioner, Botany for Herbalists truly unifies botany and herbalism in an unprecedented way.

• “We have needed a book like Botany for Herbalists for centuries. For anyone hoping to understand and see plants on a deeper level, Holly Poole-Kavana’s book takes a delightful, insightful, respectful, and integrative approach to the world of plant botany, identification, and their structures and functions. This is a book that educates while gladdening your heart and connecting you to place.”
  Maria Noël Groves, Clinical Herbalist at Wintergreen Botanicals and author of Body into Balance
• “This thought-provoking and informative new book from botanist Holly Poole-Kavana challenges the way we view the plants around us, offering a unique and important perspective on how we interact with herbs and what it means to be an herbalist. This is a well-organized and accessible guide that explores the intersection of botany and herbalism, reconnecting these two practices and encouraging readers to reevaluate how we care for the land and preserve this important legacy for future generations. Botany for Herbalists might be one of the most important books published in recent years, and one that might never make it onto my bookshelf – it will likely find a regular home on my desk, or in my hands.”
  Bevin Cohen, Co-Owner of Small House Farm and author of Herbs in Every Season
• “At long last, the herbal community has the botany resource it has been waiting for and, most definitely, deserves. As a botanist first, Holly Poole-Kavana has integrated her brilliant skills in this field with her impassioned commitment to the evolution and elevation of clinical herbalism. Botany for Herbalists is a must for beginning herbalists because where else do we start, rather than with the plants, all their intricacies, families, and ways to thrive in this world? This also serves as a textbook for any curriculum dedicated to holistic herbal education. One of the most valuable lessons is the impact of colonization and Eurocentrism, from which this field is only recently being freed, thanks in part to gifted writers and scientists like Holly.”
  Kat Maier, Founder and Director of Sacred Plant Traditions and author of Energetic Herbalism