The Botanist

In this seven episode work of literary fiction, a young man partakes of psilocybin mushrooms with a native shaman in the Pacific Northwest, and discovers that he hears voices from plants and sees disturbing visions in certain trees. Pursuing a growing interest in botany across several continents, he encounters hashish producers and pederasts in Morocco, orchid collectors in Singapore and Florida, corrupt financiers and beautiful women in London, political extremists in Athens, drug smugglers in Milan, and a group of Tuscan Egyptologists, all while conducting his plant research. As he struggles to understand a series of mystifying visions, his skin goes through unusual changes that make it susceptible to climate and stress. On his last adventure he suffers a devastating punishment for misusing what he has come to understand as his special powers. These stories explore the possibility and impossibility of crossing cultures and ultimately, species.