Yoan Coudert, a biologist and CNRS researcher at the RDP (Plant Reproduction and Development) laboratory, and Louise Joor, a Belgian comic book author, have published Avant les fleurs: Enquête scientifique aux origines des plantes with CNRS Éditions.
Avant les fleurs : Enquête scientifique aux origines des plantes
Yoan Coudert and Louise Joor
CNRS Éditions
Understanding the history, biology, and diversity of flowerless plants through words and images: that is what this educational book, accessible to all audiences, offers. Its engaging approach and richly illustrated pages make it a valuable tool for science outreach—one that everyone should have access to at a time when nature needs to reclaim its rightful place.
Excerpt from the back cover
“Plants, essential to our human existence, are all around us: from the vegetable drawer in our refrigerator to the tall trees lining our roads, and the flowers in our parks and gardens. They nourish us, provide us with oxygen, brighten our daily lives, and offer us so many other benefits that it’s impossible to imagine a world without them. Yet they haven’t always been here.
Today, scientists around the world are going back in time to trace the origins of plants. The most recent estimates suggest that the first plant species colonized land half a billion years ago. These plants had no flowers, no leaves, and no roots! Yet they brought about one of the greatest transformations our planet has ever experienced, making it habitable for us humans. What did they look like? What do recent studies tell us about how these extinct life forms functioned? How did they evolve into the plants that surround us today?”