Everything You Never Thought You Needed to Know About Pipe-Weed in Middle-Earth

The deeds of J.R.R. Tolkien have given us a plushy , vast phantasy realm in Middle - Earth , one that ’s inordinately archived and detail in his many writings . But a novel book desire to go even further on one peculiarly famous aspect : Tolkien ’s use of vegetation to tell apart us about the plant of Middle - Earth … and how its inhabitants smoke it .

Being released by Oxford University Press next week , Flora of Middle - ground : Plants of J.R.R. Tolkien ’s Legendarium — written by Botanist Walter Judd — examines over 160 of the plants Tolkien meticulously described in his novels from an academic view , analyzing them from both a vital and scientific stand in an attempt to understand how and why Tolkien make up one’s mind to employ them in his whole kit and boodle .

As well as providing a frankly extraordinary amount of info about one tiny shard of the world of Middle - Earth , the Holy Writ also include piles of beautiful illustrate visuals courtesy of Graham Judd , done in the vogue of woodcut prints — which build the whole thing feel like it could almost be some moth - eat on tome compiled by a particularly inquisitive hobbit , sit on a shelf somewhere in Hobbiton . Check out the subdivision of the book devote to Middle - Earth ’s smoked foliage of pick , the humble Pipe - Weed , work its debut here on io9 . Do n’t draw a blank to select the magnifying glasses to see larger versions of each pageboy !

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.