This book introduces the exciting field of plant philosophy and takes it in a new direction, asking what does it mean to say that plants are sexed? Do ?male' and ?female' really mean the same when applied to humans, trees and algae? Sandford addresses these questions through a detailed analysis of major moments in the history of plant sex, from Aristotle to today. Tracing the transformations in the analogy between animals and plants that characterize this history, she shows how the analogy still functions in contemporary botany and asks: what would a non-zoocentric, plant-centred philosophy of vegetal sex look like?

Introduction

1. What is Plant Philosophy?

2. Plant Philosophy and Plant Sex: Aristotle to Albertus

3. The Joint Venture: Philosophy and Botany

4. From Analogy to Identity: The Carnival of Plant Sex

5. What are 'Male' and 'Female' in Plants?
6. Are We Family? The Mother Tree and other humans

Epilogue Vegetal sexuality and us

Notes
Bibliography