Description

Seeds of Diaspora, edited by Lynnette Widder and Wendy S. Walters, traces the intertwined histories of humans and plants as they unfold amid radical cultural and climatic change. Through an exceptional collection of literary, visual, and research-based essays, the book explores how seeds—and the lives they contain—bear witness to migration, resilience, and transformation.

From post-war landscapes reclaimed by spontaneous plant life to the mythic travels of fruit trees across continents, from seeds embedded in glacial ice to those carried along routes of labor and exile, Seeds of Diaspora reimagines the map of human settlement as a living “route of roots.” The contributors—writers, artists, and researchers from architecture, ecology, anthropology, and the humanities—invite readers to see the built and natural worlds as coevolving fields of meaning.

At once poetic and scholarly, the book asks how plants and people sense, shape, and sustain one another in an age of environmental upheaval. It offers not only stories and images of deep connection, but also a vision for future practices—where architecture, art, and ecology meet to cultivate new forms of understanding.

Seeds of Diaspora is as much at home in an urban garden as on an architect’s desk—a vital, beautifully conceived anthology for readers who seek to rethink our shared planetary ground.

With contributions by Anelise Chen, Lucas Mertehikian, Naeem Mohaiemen, Dorothy M. Peteet with Thad Russell, Darby Minow Smith, Owen Taylor, Fern Thompsett, Sam Van Aken, Wendy S. Walters, and Lynnette Widder.

Details

Weight	755 g
Dimensions	240 × 165 × 12 mm
Edited by	Lynnette Widder and Wendy S. Walters
Contributions by	Anelise Chen, Lucas Mertehikian, Naeem Mohaiemen, Dorothy M. Peteet with Thad Russell, Darby Minow Smith, Owen Taylor, Fern Thompsett, Sam Van Aken, Wendy S. Walters, and Lynnette Widder.
Art Director	Julia Wagner, grafikanstalt
Language	English
Features	Softcover, full color, stich bound
Size	16,5 x 24 cm, 6.5 x 9.4 in
Illustrations	65 illustrations, including 13 hand drawings by Sam Van Aken
Page count	160 pages
Publication Date	October 2026
ISBN	978-3-96680-053-2

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / Manufacturer and Safety Information

Hersteller/Manufacturer: ArchiTangle GmbH
Adresse/Address: Meierottostr. 1, 10719 Berlin, Germany
Email: gpsr@architangle.com

An Introduction: Archives and Portals
Wendy S. Walters, Lynnette Widder, and Fern Thompsett

Treasure Reserves for Ecological and Climate History: The Importance of Seed Collections
Dorothy M. Peteet with Thad Russell

Home Is a Foreign Tree, or a Brief History of Eucalyptus in Argentina
Lucas Mertehikian

Plants and Their Societies: Affinities, Migrations, War and Peace in Germany
Lynnette Widder

Plant Life: Jagadish Chandra Bose’s “Silent Diary”
Naeem Mohaiemen

Ghost Traces: On an Imaginative Ethnography with Nonhuman Migrants
Anelise Chen

Seeds Carry Us Home: Growing Transcendental Portals in the Garden and the Kitchen
Owen Taylor

Harvesting Summer for the Long Winter Ahead: A Montana Rancher’s Reflections on Making Hay While the Sun Shines
Darby Minow Smith

“This Is Like a Culture Seed”: On the Ethical Complexities of Becoming Animist
Fern Thompsett

Before the Sheep Meadow: A Lost Neighborhood and the Roots of Belonging
Wendy S. Walters

The Open Orchard: A History of New York City in Fruit
Sam Van Aken

Endorsements

“Seeds of Diaspora is an idiosyncratic collection of personal essays that remain hopeful despite touching on histories of migration, extraction, and colonization. The reader will hopscotch in time, geography, and narratives—from paleoecology in the Meadowlands to the acculturation of eucalyptus in the Argentinian Pampa, or hear from the Chinese wolfberry (of goji berry fame) and Asian clam testifying about their unwilling travels. The book plays on rootedness and foreignness across the importation and hybridization of species, and the erasure of land and cultivation practices. Seeds are simultaneously holders of memories and projected futures, reminding us that while lying dormant or adapting, they quietly register our ambitions and longings.” —Dorothée Imbert, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and editor of Food and the City: Histories of Culture and Cultivation

“Seeds of deeply rooted plants can be carried in our hands; their youthful mobility confounds their mature rootedness. These inverse capacities, rootedness and mobility across global biological, cultural, and creative ecosystems, emerge in the essays collected in this visually rich volume.” —Ron Henderson, Founding Principal of LIRIO Landscape Architecture, inaugural Director of Research of The Alphawood Arboretum and author of 30 Trees and Why Landscape Architects Love Them, Gardens of Suzhou, and translator of Analysis of the Traditional Chinese Garden

“This beautiful collection invites readers into community with plants and people, asking how we construct a sense of home with vegetal life. As these academic, poetic, and deeply personal (hi)stories trace constellations of ‘seeds’ and ‘diaspora’ across space and time, they unfold their immense conceptual and material potential.” —Joela Jacobs, author of Animal, Vegetal, Marginal and editor of Plant Perspective