Richard Felger was a botanist, ethnobiologist, and conservationist, one of the great interpreters of the Sonoran Desert. Over decades, his work crossed borders, ranging from the Gran Desierto de Altar and the Gulf of California to points across Northwest Mexico, the US Southwest, and beyond. In this episode, Jeff Banister talks with Ben Wilder and Bill Broyles about The Botanical Odyssey of Richard S. Felger, a new book they compiled and edited with Thomas Bowen, the latest volume in the Southwest Center Series with the University of Arizona Press. The conversation traces Richard’s remarkable life and work, and the odyssey of bringing this book into the world: not quite Homeric, perhaps, but full of people, places, and more than a few epic stories.
Hosted by Jeff Banister, produced and edited by Carlos Quintero
Notes and Resources
• UA Press website for The Botanical Odyssey of Richard S. Felger: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/the-botanical-odyssey-of-richard-s-felger
• Richard S. Felger’s website: https://www.desertfoodplants.org/
• The Desert Edge: Flora of the Guaymas-Yaqui Region of Sonora, Mexico (Free PDF): https://benjamintwilder.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/
• The Desert Edge: Flora of the Guaymas-Yaqui Region of Sonora, Mexico (Brit Press website): https://shopbritpress.org/products/desert-edge
• Plants and Animals in the Yoeme World (Free PDF): https://www.desertfoodplants.org/_files/
• Plants and Animals in the Yoeme World (Order from Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Plants-Animals-Yoeme-World-Ethnoecology
• Dark Horses and Little Turtles: And Other Poems from the Anthropocene: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Horses-Little-Turtles-Anthropocene/
• Field Guide to the Trees of the Gila Region of New Mexico: https://www.unmpress.com/field-guide-to-the-trees-of-the-gila-region-of-new-mexico/
• Plant Life of a Desert Archipelago: Flora of the Sonoran Islands in the Gulf of California: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/plant-life-of-a-desert-archipelago
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