Microcosms. This item is unavailable.Microcosms

• Exploration of psychoactive plants aligns with the rapidly growing interest in and audience for work on the nature and functions of psychedelics
• Highlights the sacred role of plants in indigenous traditions, appealing to readers interested in ethnobotany, spirituality, and indigenous knowledge
• Touches on ideas of deep cultural and spiritual significance, appealing to a diverse public interested in anthropology, religious and spiritual studies, and Native American studies
• Presents stunning, never-seen-before confocal microscopy images of plants which are visually captivating and scientifically insightful
• Strong eco-activism message, aligning with current environmental concerns and trends toward sustainability and biodiversity
• 2025 Winner: International Creative Media Awards Gold Award for science books

To pay homage to sacred plants revered by Indigenous groups throughout the Americas is a way of honouring the entire world in a time of environmental emergency. The visual contents of this book magnify life in ways that may alter how humans perceive other living entities from our shared and threatened biosphere.

Some of these plants contain the most potent psychoactive agents on the planet and serve as intermediaries that have enabled Native communities to communicate with their ancestors, wage war on the enemies of their land and their traditions, conceptualise entire cosmogonies, and maintain a nearly impossible ecological equilibrium.

Each exquisite detail in these vital portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but also a potential way out of our collective crisis.

Steven F. White was educated at Williams College and received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. White is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation residency and two Fulbright grants for a literary project in Chile and curricular development as a Senior Specialist in Nicaragua. His research with Microscopy Specialist Jill Pflugheber Microcosms – A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas was presented as an exhibition at the Brush Art Gallery in 2020 at St. Lawrence University, where White taught Latin American literature and film for 34 years, and was a founder of the Caribbean and Latin American Studies interdisciplinary program. He currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Plant Perspectives.

Jill Pflugheber is a Microscopy Specialist who taught Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Research Methods in Fluorescence and Confocal Microscopy, and Research Methods in Cell Biology at her alma mater St. Lawrence University for almost twenty years. She is a 1986 graduate of St. Lawrence University, with a strong background in biomedical research. She spent 17 years contributing to studies at Harvard University, University of Kentucky, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her work has led to several journal publications.