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Full Description
As the first botanical history of World War II, Plants Go to War examines military history from the perspective of plant science. From victory gardens to drugs, timber, rubber, and fibers, plants supplied materials with key roles in victory. Vegetables provided the wartime diet both in North America and Europe, where vitamin-rich carrots, cabbages, and potatoes nourished millions. Chicle and cacao provided the chewing gum and chocolate bars in military rations. In England and Germany, herbs replaced pharmaceutical drugs; feverbark was in demand to treat malaria, and penicillin culture used a growth medium made from corn. Rubber was needed for gas masks and barrage balloons, while cotton and hemp provided clothing, canvas, and rope. Timber was used to manufacture Mosquito bombers, and wood gasification and coal replaced petroleum in European vehicles. Lebensraum, the Nazi desire for agricultural land, drove Germans eastward; troops weaponized conifers with shell bursts that caused splintering. Ironically, the Nazis condemned non-native plants, but adopted useful Asian soybeans and Mediterranean herbs. Jungle warfare and camouflage required botanical knowledge, and survival manuals detailed edible plants on Pacific islands. Botanical gardens relocated valuable specimens to safe areas, and while remote locations provided opportunities for field botany, Trees surviving in Hiroshima and Nagasaki live as a symbol of rebirth after vast destruction.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Victory Gardens
Crops and Cultivation 7; Garden Strategies 11; Soils and Fertilizers 13; Pests and Diseases 15; Seed Catalogues, Seed Saving and Cultivars 17; Spreading the Word 19; Urban
Victories 21; Children's Gardens 24; The Harvest
2. Dig for Victory
Garden Plans 32; Allotment Gardening 35; Carrying On 36; Cultivars and Propagation 39; Ground Work 42; Extending the Season 44; Sheltering in the Garden 45; Women's Institutes, Children and Wartime Gardening 47; Schrebergarten
3. Vitamins and Food Preservation
Vitamin Knowledge 51; The Vitamin War 52; Keeping and Canning Food 56; The Hedgerow Harvest 62; Dehydration and Freezing
4. Botanical Diet and Cookery
Sugar 66; Coffee 69; Margarine 70; Rationing, Meals and Botanical Foods 71; Cooking for Victory 73; Legumes Replace Meat 77; Bread Strategies 80; Making Do 80; Feeding England 84; Something from Nothing 95; The German Home Front 99; Across Europe 105; The Japanese Home Front
5. Feeding the Military
Military Meals 110; Strategic Planning 112; Daily Bread 113;
Field Cookery 115; Field Rations 117; Military Chocolate
119; Operational Rations 120; Caffeine 122; Supplying the Axis
6. Agriculture at War
Mobilizing Farms 129; Military Farms 131; Hybridization and Hybrid Vigor 133; Sugar Beets, Soybeans and Oil Crops 136; Plant Nutrients and Soil Fertility 140; Pests and Pesticides 142; Biological Warfare and the Wartime Food Supply 143; Harvesting Labor 145; Farming in England 147; The Land Army, Schools and Harvests 152; German Agriculture, Hereditary Farms and Plant Breeding 156; Farming in Japan
7. Medicinal Botany
Essential Drugs 166; Home Front Medicine 168; Battlefront Medicine 169; Malaria and Quinine 173; Scrub Typhus 178; Botanical Antibiotics 180; Penicillin 182; Agar 185; County Herb Committees 186; German Herbalism
8. Fibers
Cotton 197; Bast Fibers 201; Milkweed 206; Silk 208; Manage, Make Do, Mend and Survive 209; Fungi and Fibers 211; Fiber Currency
9. Forestry, Timber and Wood
Forests and Timber 216; Wood Production 217; Military Forestry 219; Timber in England 220; Combat 223;
Hedgerows 229; Construction, Boats, Airplanes and
Plywood 233; Paper, Books and Balloons 240; Cork 247;
Coal and Charcoal 248; Forestry, Forests and the Third
Reich 251; The Homefront 253; History in Timber
10. Oils, Resins and Rubber
Botanical Oils and Resins 257; Latex, Rubber and Rationing 260; Rubber Plants 263; German Strategies 266; Military Rubber 267; Gas Masks 269; Barrage Balloons 271; Synthetic Rubber
11. Survival
Preparation 275; Deception and Camouflage 278; Survival Manuals 287; Deprivation, Starvation and Epigenetics 293; Subsistence Gardens 300; Regeneration
12. Botanical Gardens, Herbaria and Plant Science in Wartime
Practical Knowledge 308; Collections 310; Occupation 313; Field Botany 314; Germany and Native Plants 317; Homefront Horticulture 322; Rebirth
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
