Plants have been bent to human purpose for millennia--for crops, clothing, shelter, and now, to enliven the developed landscape in ways the backyard gardener never imagined. Here we present a collection of botanical wonders that are grown over buildings, grown into buildings, and woven into astounding, colossal patterns.

In 1993 farmers in the tiny village of Inakadate in northern Japan realized they could use four varieties of rice to etch images in the fields. After years of reproducing a simple design of nearby Mount Iwaki, in 2006 they began using computers to devise larger, more intricate murals that recreate figures from Japanese art and myth. Computer design has also allowed a sophisticated use of perspective so that the work appears well-proportioned when viewed from an observation tower.