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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.
 

A comprehensive and accessible field guide to the Canary Islands flowers, including a visual guide to flora hotspots to visit.

Situated in the North Atlantic off the coast of northwestern Africa, the Canary Islands are a volcanic archipelago, comprising seven large and several smaller islands. The region attracts millions of visitors every year, with an abundance of ecotourists drawn by its famously rich flora. This book presents previously inaccessible information on the islands through the collaboration of British scientists and local experts.

This long-awaited field guide covers more than two thousand of the region’s exceptionally diverse and important plants, from the most common species to local endemics. Illustrated throughout with color photographs, each species profile includes nomenclature, description, dimensions, habitat, flowering times, and distribution.

With comprehensive, up-to-date coverage sorted by habitat, this is the essential guide for students, professional botanists, scientists, gardeners, and plant enthusiasts alike.
 

With comprehensive, up-to-date coverage sorted by habitat, this is the essential guide to the Western Alps for students, professional botanists, scientists, gardeners, and plant-enthusiasts alike.

The Western Alps, a large region of dramatic scenery and varied habitats, is noted for its biodiversity and beauty. From woodlands and forests, through colorful hay meadows, to the higher alpine elevations, the region boasts one of the most diverse and colorful mountain floras found anywhere on earth. This book is a celebration of the great biological diversity found in one of the most beautiful and inviting regions of Europe.

This comprehensive guide features the fascinating flora to be found across the region in the French Alps, the Massif Central and Cevennes, the Swiss Jura Mountains and the Italian Alps east to Como and Bergamo. Illustrated throughout with over 2000 photographs, each species profile includes nomenclature, description, dimensions, habitat, flowering times, and distribution.
 

An illustrated hourly guide that spotlights twenty-four flowers as they attract pollinators, resist predators, and survive on our changing planet.

Is it 4 AM or chicory o’clock? In this short book, botanist and award-winning author Sandra Knapp walks us through a day in a global garden. Each chapter of Flower Day introduces a single flower during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four different species from around the world.

Beginning at midnight in the Americas, we spot the long tubular flowers of the moonflower, Ipomoea alba; they attract a frenzy of hawk moths before the dawn arrives and the flowers wither and collapse. As day breaks, dandelions and chicory open their heads—actually made up of many individual flowers tightly packed together—and flies and bees visit to get the energy they need to lay eggs and raise their young. Later, at eight o’clock in the morning, the sun rises over the watery Amazon basin, and we meet the giant waterlily, slowly turning from white to pink and purple. Trapped inside are the beetles who feasted on the flowers during the night. That evening, at seven o’clock, we travel to the Caribbean to smell night-blooming jessamine’s powerful—some may say nauseating—sweet scent. But this member of the nightshade family isn’t just a thing of beauty—it has a reputation as both a poison and invasive species, crowding out endangered native trees. 

For each hour in our flower day, celebrated artist Katie Scott has depicted these scenes with gorgeous pen-and-ink illustrations. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Knapp and Scott have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for amateur botanists, gardeners, and anyone who wants to stop and appreciate the flowers.