Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics

Lesley Wylie is an Associate Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Leicester and has published widely on the subject of plants across Latin American culture.

• Acknowledgments Figures Introduction. Green Power: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics Lesley Wylie The Dark Twin: Cacao from Mesoamerican Cosmology to the Contemporary Neotropics Bruce Dean Willis “A Good Thing Spring Up”: The Breadfruit Story in the Caribbean Elaine Savory Ceiba pentandra: Axis of the Mesoamerican World / Mirror of Climate Change in the Caribbean Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert The Politics of Yerba Mate Nina Gerassi-Navarro Transgenic Soy in Argentina: Arts of the Toxic Zone Sebastián Figueroa “A Home of Cactus and Maguey”: Dwelling and Cultural Representation of Succulents of the Americas Odile Cisneros From Tropical Pathology to Tropical Plantation: the Hevea brasiliensis, 1839 to 1945 Lesley Wylie The Vine at the End of the World: Reimagining Kudzu in the U.S. South Jessica Martell and Zackary Vernon Bibliography Contributors

‘A timely exploration of plant studies in the hemispheric Americas, Understories showcases diverse methodologies for uncovering the imbrications of plant and human world-making across the two continents. Each chapter uniquely challenges the place of plants—from trees to succulents, breadfruit to transgenic soy—in the popular imaginary by charting dynamic histories of growth, transplantation, contamination, and adaptation in a variety of human-plant entanglements.’ Amanda M. Smith