The Plant Hunter

The uplifting adventure-filled memoir of one groundbreaking scientist’s quest to develop new ways to fight illness and disease through the healing powers of plants.“A fascinating and deeply personal journey.” —Amy Stewart author of Wicked Plants and The Drunken BotanistTraveling by canoe ATV mule airboat and on foot Dr. Cassandra Quave has conducted field research everywhere from the flooded forests of the remote Amazon to the isolated mountaintops in Albania and Kosovo—all in search of natural compounds long-known to traditional healers that could help save us all from the looming crisis of untreatable superbugs. Dr. Quave is a leading medical ethnobotanist—someone who identifies and studies plants that may be able to treat antimicrobial resistance and other threatening illnesses—helping to provide clues for the next generation of advanced medicines. And as a person born with multiple congenital defects of her skeletal system she's done it all with just one leg. In The Plant Hunter Dr. Quave weaves together science botany and memoir to tell us the extraordinary story of her own journey.