‘Their Breath Was Captured in the Tree’
Key takeaways
- When plant biologist Beronda Montgomery sat down to write what became a personal memoir mixed with a botanical history of African Americans, she found her research as a Ph.D.
- Her studies of how plants respond to light during photosynthesis led to shining a light on the history of extensive plant cultivation by African Americans, including those who endured forced labor.
- Montgomery is the author of “When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy.”
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
Republish Botanist Beronda Montgomery is the author of “When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy.” Credit: Melissa Blackall/Radcliffe Institute Related Across Ecosystems, Dead Organisms Help Shape the Living World How Forests Start to Fail, One Leaf at a Time Helping Trees—and a City—Outrace Climate Change Share This Article Republish Most Popular An Old Well Gushed Waste, Not Oil, in a Small West Texas Town North Carolina Sues Chemical Company for Polluting a Nearby Creek Alaskans Reel From the Loss of National Science Foundation Ocean-Monitoring Instruments From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with botanist and author Beronda Montgomery.
When plant biologist Beronda Montgomery sat down to write what became a personal memoir mixed with a botanical history of African Americans, she found her research as a Ph.D. lab scientist had brought her squarely into the world of social science as well.
Her studies of how plants respond to light during photosynthesis led to shining a light on the history of extensive plant cultivation by African Americans, including those who endured forced labor.