Flowering Plants - A Pictorial Guide to the World's Flora

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A fascinating new book with 288 pages and 700 illustrations, "Flowering Plants" is unique among floral references.
The book covers botanical information on over 100 flowering plant families.

Flowering Plants: A Pictorial Guide to the World's Flora is divided into the two flowering plant groups: the dicotyledons, or dicots, which typically have two leaves in the seed's embryo, and the monocotyledons, or monocots, which typically have one leaf in the seed's embryo.

Each entry is presented across two or more pages with color illustrations that show the plant's anatomy, with all parts labeled in Latin and English.
Some of the 100 plant families in the book include: Amaranthaceae (Amaranths, Celosias and Cockscombs), Apiaceae/Umbelliferae (Carrot family), Begoniaceae (Begonias), Boraginaceae (Borage and Forget Me Not family), Caryophyllaceae (Carnations) and Geraniaceae (Geraniums and Pelargoniams).

Now, on to what makes this paperback book so special.

Let's take the Boraginaceae because I love Borage but have difficulty growing it and want to learn more about it. The family ranges from large tropical trees to widely distributed herbs most of which have stiff hairs on bulbous bases. They grow widely in the Mediterranean and the warm parts of Asia, from sea level to 4,000 feet.

The corolla is usually tubular or trumpet shaped. Various parts of the plants are used as lumber, edible fruit, dye, edible herb, and ornamentals.

The second page of the family's description is comprised of illustrations.

The book is more for those of us who want to learn more science about plants rather than it being just a book of pretty photos of garden beds and pots. And, the botanical language will require a dictionary nearby to help me get the most out of the contents.

I'm looking forward to browsing the pages and understanding more about the world of plants that we grow and love to grow.

Firefly Books is the publisher, 2011. Here's their link.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi - I am definitely glad to find this. cool job!
April 20, 2011 at 10:51 AM
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