The Forgotten Pollinators explores the vital but little-appreciated relationship between plants and the animals they depend on for reproduction: bees, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, bats and countless other animals -- some widely recognized and other almost unknown.

In this landmark book, Gary Paul Nabhan takes us on a personal trip into the southwestern borderlands to discover the terroir-the taste of the place-that makes this desert so delicious.

In Gathering the Desert readers will discover that the bounty of the desert is much more than meets the eye-whether found in the luscious fruit of the stately organpipe cactus or in the lowly tepary bean.

Ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan has lived with the Tohono O'odham, long known as the Papagos, observing the delicate balance between these people and their environment. Bringing O'odham voices to the page at every turn, he writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize wild edible foods.