/ Modified jul 23, 2015 5:41 p.m.

"The Reason for Flowers"

Get a different perspective on the beauty, ecology and lore of flowers from Stephen Buchmann, a pollination expert and the author of a new book of natural history.

saguaro flowers spotlight Saguaro flowers in full bloom. Photo by Stephen Buchmann, author of "The Reason for Flowers".

the reason for flowers portrait Peniocereus, photo by Stephen Buchmann.

Flowers can be found everywhere in the Sonoran Desert, just as they have infiltrated many aspects of our culture.

From weddings to funerals, get-well-soon wishes to romantic gestures, and from art and poetry to fabric designs and fragrances, flowers play a role in our daily lives that is far beyond their humble ecological purpose.

Stephen Buchmann is a an adjunct professor of entomology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. He is also an expert on pollination and bees, and he has authored more than a half dozen books on the connections between flora and fauna.

Buchmann has just completed a collection of natural history essays called The Reason of Flowers...

Listen:

the reason for flowers bee spotlight Photo of pollination in action by Stephen Buchmann, author of "The Reason for Flowers".
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