Having stepped "beyond" physics, the venerable metaphysical tradition of philosophy continued to draw sustenance from its natural foundation—regularly turning to botanical metaphors and allegories—yet kept them at the periphery of its attention, thereby "devaluing, instrumentalizing, and trivializing" life itself. Michael Marder undertakes a deconstruction of this almost unconscious habit shared by philosophers from antiquity to the present day, revealing a "plant philosophy" hidden in the shadows of mainstream thought—one that literally sprouts within the works of twelve renowned thinkers, from Plato to Luce Irigaray. Maimonides’ palm tree, Hegel’s vine, Derrida’s sunflowers, and other "philosophers’ plants" reveal themselves to be far more than a mere "pressed" herbarium or a sentimental addendum; they constitute a vital aspect of even those philosophical systems whose ascent to intellectual and spiritual heights was paved with ecocide.