front cover of Demystifying Orchid Pollination
Demystifying Orchid Pollination
Stories of Sex, Lies and Obsession
Adam P. Karremans
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2023
An engaging and authoritative account of the fertilization of orchid flowers.
 
Demystifying Orchid Pollination explores the fascinating history of orchids and the means by which they reproduce. Adam P. Karremans reveals orchids’ hidden secrets, highlights the key role of pollinators in securing the survival of these delicate plants, and provides past and present scientific knowledge that challenges common beliefs about orchid reproduction. Demystifying Orchid Pollination celebrates biodiversity while stressing the importance of further ecological study and advocating for increased conservation efforts and thorough research and development.
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front cover of Fathers of Botany
Fathers of Botany
The Discovery of Chinese Plants by European Missionaries
Jane Kilpatrick
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2014
Many of the world’s most renowned and exciting ornamental plants—including magnolias, roses, rhododendrons, tree peonies, lilies, and blue poppies—have their origins in China. In the mid-nineteenth century, professional plant hunters were dispatched by nurseries and botanic gardens to collect living botanical specimens from China for cultivation in Europe, and it is these adventurers and nurserymen who are often credited with the explosive bloom of Chinese flowers in the West.

But as Jane Kilpatrick shows in Fathers of Botany, the first Westerners to come upon and document this bounty were in fact cut from a different cloth: the clergy. Following the Opium Wars, European missionaries were the first explorers to dig further into the Chinese interior and send home evidence of one of the richest and most varied floras ever seen, and it was their discoveries that caused a sensation among Western plantsmen. Both men of faith and talented botanists alike, these missionaries lent their names to many of the plants they discovered, but their own stories disappeared into the leaf litter of history. Drawing on their letters and contemporary accounts, Kilpatrick focuses on the lives of four great French missionary botanists—Pères Armand David (of Davidia involucrata—the dove tree—and discoverer of the giant panda), Jean Marie Delavay, Paul Guillaume Farges, and Jean André Soulié—as well as a group of other French priests, Franciscan missionaries, and a single German Protestant pastor who all amassed significant plant collections, as she unearths a lost chapter of botanical history. In so doing, she reminds today’s gardeners and botanists—and any of us who stop to smell the roses—of the enormous debt owed to these obscure fathers of botany.
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front cover of Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean
Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean
Rolf Kuehn
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2018
Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean is a comprehensive manual that pairs thousands of color photographs with expert guidance, making it easy for readers to identify the varied orchid species of this region. The authors bring decades of field and research experience to this project and combine their first-hand knowledge with the latest scientific research, making this the most thorough and up-to-date book available.

The book covers orchids from Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as areas in Turkey and the immediate near east of North Africa and Macaronesia. It includes thirty genera and their species including Ophrys, Cypripedium, Orchis, Dactylorhiza, Epipactis, and Serapias, as well as seventy natural hybrids. The authors emphasize the natural variability that exists in many wild species and work to eliminate the confusion that can arise due to the morphological variation. Each species includes multiple images to illustrate this diversity as well as notes on distinguishing features and distribution maps. Common names and important synonyms accompany each species alongside notes on habitat, flowering times, and distinguishing features.
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front cover of Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean
Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean
Rolf Kühn
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2024
An updated, comprehensive guide to the orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean: Second Edition is a comprehensive photographic guide to the orchids of the region written by leading experts, who between them have decades of orchid field and research experience. The book covers orchids from Europe and the Mediterranean, extending to Turkey and the immediate near east of North Africa and Macaronesia.

Many guides to orchids of this region exist, but in this completely revised second edition, the authors have drawn on the latest scientific research to bring clarity to orchid identification and names, with an emphasis on the natural variability that exists in many wild species. This edition incorporates the latest updates in taxonomy. With over 2000 color photographs and new images, the book provides the reader with an accessible and easy-to-use identification guide to the natural variability seen in these orchids.

The book covers thirty genera and their species including Ophrys, Cypripedium, Orchis, Dactylorhiza, Epipactis, and Serapias, as well as seventy natural hybrids. Much of the confusion over identification is due to the morphological variation a species can have within a habitat and across its distribution, and therefore to simplify identification, several images accompany each species to illustrate this diversity, along with notes on distinguishing features and distribution maps. Each species is also accompanied by common names and important synonyms, as well as notes on habitat, flowering times, and distinguishing features.
 
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