William W. Dunmire, of Placitas, New Mexico, is a retired National Park Service naturalist and writer-photographer on natural history topics including forthcoming Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and Foods Changed America, as well as Wild Plants of the Pueblo Province:  Exploring Ancient and Enduring Uses, and Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners.

Gardens of New Spain tells the fascinating story of the diffusion of plants, gardens, agriculture, and cuisine from late medieval Spain to the colonial frontier of Hispanic America. Beginning in the Old World, William Dunmire describes how Spain came to adopt plants and their foods from the Fertile Crescent, Asia, and Africa. Crossing the Atlantic, he first examines the agricultural scene of Pre-Columbian Mexico and the Southwest. Then he traces the spread of plants and foods introduced from the Mediterranean to Spain's settlements in Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. In lively prose, Dunmire tells stories of the settlers, missionaries, and natives who blended their growing and eating practices into regional plantways and cuisines that live on today in every corner of America.