Lives of Weeds is written by Dr. John Cardina, a retired weed scientist with The Ohio State University. He shares not only the history of several weeds, but their relationship to humans. Dr. Cardina will be joining us for the first meeting sharing his perspective on how this book came to be. While reading you will learn about selected tenacious plants and their unique stories – why they are both inevitable and essential, and how their ecological success is ensured by tireless efforts to eradicate them. He links botany, history, ecology, and evolutionary biology to the social dimensions of humanity's ancient struggle with feral flora, and shows how weeds have shaped—and are shaped by—the way we live in the natural world.