1911 North Duncan Road, Champaign, Illinois 61821 USA; +1 217 355 9331 & 355 1704 fax: +1 217 355 9413; email: scott@balogh.com
New Botanical Books (for botanical garden publications, click on the garden links!)
Flora of Ecuador, Volume 88. C. H. Dodson and C. A. Luer: 225(7). Orchidaceae, Lepanthes and Affiliates. 2011. ISBN: 978-91-85529-34-6. 460 pp., color illustrations, line drawings, map. Softcover. $110.00
Flora of Thailand, Volume 10 Part 4: Cecropiaceae and Moraceae.
2011. 207 pp., 20 coloured plates. Softcover. $185.00
Flora of Thailand, Volume 11 Part 1: Cornaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, Erythoxylaceae, Helwingiaceae, Lentibulariaceae, Monimiaceae, Ranunculaceae, Stemonaceae. 2011. 99 pp., 8 coloured plates. Softcover. $135.00
Flora of Thailand, Volume 12 Part 1: Orchidaceae. 2011, 302 pp., 24 coloured plates. Softcover. $185.00
Flora of the Guianas Series C: Bryophytes Fascicle 2.
M.J. Jansen-Jacobs. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464595. 200 pp., 120 line drawings, 1
map. Paperback. $115.00
A critical, illustrated Flora of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, designed to
treat phanerogams as well as cryptogams of the area. Each fascicle treats a
family or group of related families, providing fundamental and applied
information, covering, where relevant, wood anatomy, chemical analysis, economic
uses, vernacular names and data on endangered species.
Flore du Gabon, Volume 42: Aizoaceae, Aristolochiaceae, Gnetaceae,
Hypericaceae, Lecythidaceae, Pedaliaceae, Polygalaceae, Turneraceae, Xyridaceae.
M.S.M. Sosef, et al. 2011. ISBN: 978-3-8236-1615-3. 110 pp. Softcover. $85.00
In this volume, forty-nine species representing seventeen genera and nine
families are treated. They belong to three main biological forms: grasses (Aizoaceae,
Pedaliaceae, Polygalaceae and Xyridaceae pp), vines (Aristolochiaceae and
Gnetaceae) and trees or shrubs (Hypericaceae, Lecythidaceae, Polygalaceae and
Turneraceae pp). They meet in different settings ranging from the vegetation of
coastal sands, through the forest to the recruits training primary or secondary
within the country. Wetland environments and inselbergs are also home to many
species described in this volume, including owned Xyridaceae. In addition, many
taxonomic notes presented by the authors contribute to clarifications sometimes
essential to the understanding of the synonymy of certain species, their com
bination
or separation of a species and even a variety.
The European Garden Flora. 5 Volume Hardback Set. A Manual for
the Identification of Plants Cultivated in Europe, Both Out-of-Doors and Under
Glass. 2nd Edition.
James Cullen, et al. 2011. ISBN: 9780521761673. 3472 pp., 231 b/w illustrations.
Hardcover. $990.00
The European Garden Flora is the definitive manual for the accurate
identification of cultivated ornamental flowering plants. Designed to meet the
highest scientific standards, the vocabulary has nevertheless been kept as
uncomplicated as possible so that the work is fully accessible to the informed
gardener as well as the professional botanist. Comprehensive keys are provided
at the level of family, genus and species and line diagrams are included to
illustrate the important diagnostic features of critical taxa. Reference is made
to useful illustrations and taxonomic accounts and a small amount of guidance on
cultivation is provided for many genera. This new edition has been thoroughly
reorganised and revised, bringing it into line with modern taxonomic knowledge.
Although European in name, the Flora covers plants cultivated in most areas of
the United States and Canada as well as in non-tropical parts of Asia and
Australasia.
The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids, Volume 1:
North of Florida and Mexico. Charles L. Argue. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4614-0591-7. 228 pp., 42 illustrations, 34
tables. Hardcover. $189.00
Recent studies have revealed remarkable complexity and diversity in
orchid-pollinator relationships. These studies comprise a vast literature
currently scattered in numerous, often obscure, journals and books. The
Pollination Biology of North American Orchids brings together, for the first
time, a comprehensive treatment of this information for all native and
introduced North American orchids found north of Mexico and Florida. It provides
detailed information on genetic compatibility, breeding systems, pollinators,
pollination mechanisms, fruiting success, and limiting factors for each species.
Distribution, habitat, and floral morphology are also summarized. In addition,
detailed line drawings emphasize orchid reproductive organs and their adaptation
to known pollinators. This, the first of two volumes, furnishes a brief
introduction to the general morphology of the orchid flower and the terminology
used to describe orchid breeding systems and reproductive strategies. It treats
the lady’s-slippers of genus Cypripedium, subfamily Cypripedioideae, and nine
genera of the subfamily Orchidoideae, including the diverse rein orchids of
genus Platanthera.
The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids, Volume 2:
North of Florida and Mexico. Charles L. Argue. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4614-0621-1. 202 pp., illustrations, tables. Hardcover.
$189.00
This, the second of two volumes, treats the subfamily Orchidoideae with the
tribe Cranichideae. This is followed by examination of the seven North American
tribes of subfamily Epidendroideae and the single North Amer
ican tribe of
subfamily Vanilloideae.
Deceptive Beauties: The World of Wild Orchids.
Christian Ziegler. 2011. ISBN: 9780226982977. 184 pp., 165 color plates.
Hardcover. $45.00
Deceptive Beauties: The World of Wild Orchids, we learn how these flowers can
survive and thrive in the harshest of environments, from tropical cloud forests
to the Arctic, from semi-deserts to rocky mountainsides; how their shapes,
colors, and scents are, as Darwin put it, “beautiful contrivances” meant to dupe
pollinating male insects in the strangest ways. What other flowers, after all,
can mimic the pheromones and even appearance of female insects, so much so that
some male bees prefer sex with the orchids over sex with their own kind? And
insects aren’t the only ones to fall for the orchids’ charms. Since the
“orchidelirium” of the Victorian era, humans have braved the wilds to search
them out and devoted copious amounts of time and money propagating and
hybridizing, nurturing and simply gazing at them. This astonishing book features
over 150 unprecedented color photographs taken by Christian Ziegler himself as
he trekked through wilderness on five continents to capture the diversity and
magnificence of orchids in their natural habitats. His intimate and astonishing
images allow us to appreciate up close nature’s most intoxicating and deceptive
beauties.
Mapping the Cacti of Mexico. Héctor M.
Hernández and Carlos Gómez-Hinostrosa. 2011. ISBN: 9780953813483. 128 pp.,
illustrated. Softcover. $40.00
With about 50 genera and 560 species, Mexico harbors the richest assemblage of
cacti in the world. The concentration of members of this family occurs in the
arid and semi-arid regions of the country, most notably the Chihuahuan Desert,
the Sonoran Desert and the Tehuacan Valley. This book has detailed maps of the
global distribution of 33 genera and 114 species of cacti occurring in Mexico.
These maps allow
the identification and characterization of the specific area of occupancy of
living organisms, providing a foundation for useful information for a variety of
scientific fields and practical disciplines.
This significant
work presents the most up to date information on the locations of a majority of
cacti today. 34 color photos of cacti in their habitat, 53 color distribution
maps.
Guide to
the Flowers of Western China.
Christopher Grey-Wilson and Phillip Cribb. 2011. ISBN: 9781842461693. 504 pp.,
2400 color plates, 10 maps. Hardcover. $115.00
Unrivaled in the
temperate latitudes of the world, China’s rich flora comprises 30,000 species of
plants, and nowhere is this floral richness more evident than in western China.
With its lush forests, meandering rivers,
and majestic mountains, the west of China has been a center of plant exploration
for over two centuries, giving rise to many well-known species of trees, shrubs,
perennials, and bulbs that populate
our
parks and botanical institutes, including rhododendron, orchids, peonies, and
roses. Guide to the Flowers of Western China describes and illustrates more than
two thousand species, from the common to the endemic to the extremely rare.
Plant families are arranged following the latest DNA-based classification,
making this pictorial guide— the largest and most comprehensive on western China
ever published.
Poisonous
Plants of Pakistan. S.H. Abid
Askari. 2011. ISBN: 9780195977899. 400 pp. Hardcover. $50.00
In Poisonous Plants of Pakistan, the author has collected, in one volume,
information about the poisonous plants that can be found in Pakistan, which
previously could only be found in scattered, specialized scientific papers.
Detailed descriptions of the plants and how to avoid injury from them are
accompanied by author's own
accurate
illustrations which highlight the poisonous
parts of each plant. There is also useful information on how to recognise the
symptoms of poisoning and provide first aid.
Flowers on the Tree of Life. Livia
Wanntorp, et al. 2011. ISBN: 9780521765992. 326 pp., 79 b/w illustrations, 9
tables. Hardcover. $95.00
Genetic and molecular studies have recently come to dominate botanical research
at the expense of more traditional morphological approaches. This broad
introduction to modern flower systematics demonstrates the great potential that
floral morphology has to complement molecular data in phylogenetic and
evolutionary investigations. Contributions from experts in floral morphology and
evolution take the reader through examples of how flowers have diversified in a
large variety of lineages of extant and fossil flowering plants. They explore
angiosperm origins and the early evolution of flowers and analyse the
significance of morphological characters for phylogenetic reconstructions on the
tree of life. The importance of integrating morphology into modern botanical
research is highlighted through case studies exploring specific plant groups
where morphological investigations are having a major impact. Examples include
the clarification of phylogenetic relationships and understanding the
significance and evolution of specific floral characters, such as pollination
mechanisms and stamen and carpel numbers.
The Smallest Kingdom: Plants and Plant Collectors at the Cape of
Good Hope.
Mike Fraser and Liz Fraser. 2011. ISBN: 9781842463895. 300 pp., 115 color
plates. Hardcover. $46.00
The Smallest Kingdom is an illustrated account of the botanical exploration of
South Africa’s Cape Floral Kingdom and the plants that this region has given to
the gardens of the world over the last four centuries. Home to more than nine
thousand distinct plant species, thirty percent of which are native only to the
Cape Floral Kingdom, this small region was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site
in 2004, as well as a global biodiversity hotspot.
Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs.
Michael A. Dirr. 2011. ISBN: 9780881929010. 952 pp., 3530 color photos.
Hardcover. $79.95
With Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs and Dirr's Trees and Shrubs for Warm
Climates, Michael Dirr set the gold standard for horticultural reference. Now
these two classic and bestselling books are under one cover, fully updated with
hundreds of new plants, photographs, and commentary in Dirr's signature style.
This is his most comprehensive visual reference yet. From majestic evergreens to
delicate vines and flowering shrubs, Dirr features thousands of plants with all
the essential details for identification, planting, and care, plus full-color
photographs showing a tree's habit in winter, distinctive bark patterns, fall
color, and more. In a class by itself for its quality of information, the best
researched recommendations for hardiness in the industry, beautiful photography,
and Dirr's own preeminence as a master plantsman, Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees
and Shrubs is a critical addition to any garden library.
The Timber Press Guide to Succulent Plants of the World: A
Comprehensive Reference to More than 2000 Species.
Fred Dortort. 2011. ISBN: 9780881929959. 344 pp., 755 color photos, 2 maps.
$49.95
A comprehensive guide to more than 2000 succulents, this groundbreaking book
begins with an overview of where succulents are found and how they live, along
with information on growing and caring for them. The remaining chapters consist
of comprehensive, richly illustrated descriptions of the plants, including both
familiar species as well as less common, more exotic plants. Each entry includes
information on the plant's native habitat, its cultivation requirements, and its
horticultural potential.
New England Wild Flower Society's Flora Novae Angliae: A Manual
for the Identification of Native and Naturalized Higher Vascular Plants of New
England.
Arthur Haines. 2011. ISBN: 9780300171549. 1008 pp., 945 b/w illustrations.
Hardcover. $85.00
This comprehensive manual offers accurate, up-to-date, and clear information for
identifying New England's remarkable array of tracheophytes (vascular plants,
excluding mosses). With fully researched entries on some 3,500 native and
nonnative species, the book is the first in decades to provide a complete and
correct botanical reference for the region's noncultivated plants. The volume
includes many new species not documented in New England before, while also
excluding many species that have erroneously appeared in earlier manuals.
Focusing on the taxonomy and distribution of New England plants, the manual is
largely dedicated to identification keys and to species entries that provide
scientific name, origin, regional conservation ranking, common name, synonyms,
distribution, ecology, and other miscellaneous items of interest. Nearly
one-third of the entries are accompanied by helpful black-and-white line
illustrations.
Wildflowers of Glacier National Park and Surrounding Areas.
Shannon Fitzpatrick Kimball, et al. 2011. ISBN: 978-0-87842-569-3. 254 pp.
Paperback. $24.95
A user-friendly field guide featuring over three hundred of Glacier National
Park's most common plant species, this book features beautiful photographs,
detailed descriptions, notes on habitat, and fun facts for each plant. It's a
perfect plant reference for anyone with an interest in the natural history and
splendor of Glacier National Park.
The Book of Fungi: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from
around the World.
Peter Roberts and Shelley Evans. 2011. ISBN: 9780226721170. 656 pp., 2000 color
plates. Hardcover. $55.00
In this lavishly illustrated volume, six hundred fungi from around the globe get
their full due. Each species here is reproduced at its actual size, in full
color, and is accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution,
habitat, association, abundance, growth form, spore color, and edibility.
Location maps give at-a-glance indications of each species’ known global
distribution, and specially commissioned engravings show different fruitbody
forms and provide the vital statistics of height and diameter. With information
on the characteristics, distinguishing features, and occasionally bizarre habits
of these fungi, readers will find in this book the common and the conspicuous,
the unfamiliar and the odd. There is a fungal predator, for instance, that hunts
its prey with lassos, and several that set traps, including one that entices
sows by releasing the pheromones of a wild boar. Mushrooms, morels, puffballs,
toadstools, truffles, chanterelles—fungi from habitats spanning the poles and
the tropics, from the highest mountains to our own backyards—are all on display
in this definitive work.
Endophytes of Forest Trees: Biology and Applications.
Anna Maria Pirttilä and A. Carolin Frank. 2011. ISBN: 978-94-007-1598-1. 319
pp., 32 illustrations, 8 in color. Hardcover. $209.00
Found in every plant species, the diversity of endophytic micro-organisms can be
extremely high within different plant organs and tissue types. In trees, their
ecological roles with respect to host tree can vary from latent pathogens or
saprophytes to neutral commensalists and mutualists. Given their high diversity,
and their bio-active nature, endophytes are currently being associated with a
role in tree health against insect herbivores and fungal pathogens, as well as
improving tree properties in phytoremediation. Meanwhile there is increasing
interest in the potential of some tree endophytes as new sources of drug
compounds.
Flora of Australia, Volume 39: Alismatales to Arales. 2011. ISBN: 9780643104235. 320 pp., color illustrations. Hardcover.
$143.00
Volume 39 of the Flora of Australia describes 17 families of monocots in 76
genera and 256 species. Most of the families are aquatic, and include the
sea-grasses, pond weeds, and some major agricultural weed species. Four families
are entirely or mostly terrestrial. The aquatic families are all small in number
of species, and two, Juncaginaceae and Posidoniaceae, have their greatest
diversity in Australia. Lemnaceae contains the world’s smallest and most reduced
flowering plants, some as tiny as 1 mm long. Of the terrestrial families, all
are predominantly tropical, with their greatest diversity outside Australia.
Arecaceae (palms) and Pandanaceae are often large trees, and include species of
economic importance as food and oil crops, fiber, timber and other construction
materials, as well as many horticultural species. Araceae are mostly climbers
but also arborescent to aquatic herbs, with several important food species, and
many horticultural species and cultivars.
Zambian Plants used as Traditional Fever Cures.
Dennis G. Fowler. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464601. 294 pp. Paperback.
$100.00
This book lists over 400 Zambian plant remedies with their scientific and common
names, a brief description of plant and habitat, and the plant parts used with
the recipes and areas, and scientific research where relevant. A glossary also
provides over 4000 local plant names linked to their scientific names.
Plants of Western New South Wales.
Geoffrey Mc Iver Cunningham, et al. 2011. ISBN: 9780643103634. 766
pp., color illustrations and photos. Hardcover. $180.00
Plants of Western New South Wales was originally published in 1992 and grew from
the expertise which the authors acquired during their employment in the arid and
semi-arid pastoral areas of the State. Each author became aware of the need for
a comprehensive record illustrating and describing the great array of plants in
the area. The need was identified both for people involved in research and
advisory services, and particularly for the landholders who need to manage the
plants for their livelihood. The book is a landmark because it draws together
all of the existing knowledge of plants from the area, adds to it the extensive
collections and research of the authors and presents the whole as a
comprehensive collation and description of the plants of the dry pastoral
portion of the State. This edition will be reprinted and published by CSIRO
Publishing with a one page appendix giving website addresses of various herbaria
in Australia where the reader can readily access up-to-date information on
botanical name changes.
The Biology of Island Floras. David
Bramwell and Juli Caujapé-Castells. 2011. ISBN: 9780521118088. 536 pp., 72 b/w
illustrations, 36 tables. Hardcover. $120.00
Oceanic islands offer biologists unparalleled opportunities to study
evolutionary processes and ecological phenomena. However, human activity
threatens to alter or destroy many of these fragile ecosystems, with recent
estimates suggesting that nearly half of the world's insular endemics are
threatened with extinction. Bringing together researchers from around the world,
this book illustrates how modern research methods and new concepts have
challenged accepted theories and changed our understanding of island flora.
Particular attention is given to the impact of molecular studies and the
insights that they provide into topics such as colonisation, radiation,
diversification and hybridisation. Examples are drawn from around the world,
including the Hawaiian archipelago, Galapagos Islands, Madagascar and the
Macronesian region. Conservation issues are also highlighted, with coverage of
alien species and the role of ex situ conservation providing valuable
information that will aid the formulation of management strategies and genetic
rescue programmes.
The Ambonese Herbal. Volumes 1-6.
Georgius Everhardus Rumphius; Translated, annotated, and with an introduction by
E. M. Beekman. 2011. ISBN: 9780300153767. 3360 pp. Hardcover Boxed Set. $450.00
Over the course of five decades, the seventeenth-century naturalist Georgius
Everhardus Rumphius assiduously gathered information on the native plants of
Ambon Island and its archipelago. By presenting descriptions of the plants and
their multiple uses, he succeeded in creating a cultural and scientific treasury
of incomparable value not only for his contemporaries but also for today’s
botanists, anthropologists, ethnobotanists, science historians, medicinal
chemists, and other scholars. Rumphius’ comprehensive reference, complete with
811 original illustrations, describes in remarkable detail more than 2,000
plants, their habitats, and their economic and medicinal uses. He also records
native plant names in Malay, Latin, Dutch, and Ambonese—and often in Macassarese
and South Chinese as well. In an illuminating introduction, E. M. Beekman
discusses the Herbal’s significance for tropical botanical literature, examines
Rumphius’ influence on Linnaeus’ work, and surveys the Indonesian economic and
medicinal uses of the plants Rumphius described. Beekman also provides
invaluable annotations throughout the Herbal.
Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida, Third Edition.
Richard P. Wunderlin and Bruce F. Hansen. 2011. ISBN: 978-0-8130-3543-7. 800 pp.
Hardcover. $44.95
Expanded and updated, this volume is an indispensable reference to the highly
diverse flora of the state. Both popular and comprehensive, this new edition
contains updated nomenclature and the inclusion of more than 100 additional
species, making it the most inclusive identification manual to the more than
4,200 taxa native to or naturalized in Florida.
Aloes: The Definitive Guide. S. Carter, et
al. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464397. 719 pp., 1,110 color plates, 1 map, 1 line
drawing. Hardcover. $160.00
Aloe vera is one of the most important cultivated medicinal plants and a key
component of the floras of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. Here, for the first
time since the 1960s, is a comprehensive account of all currently accepted aloe
taxa in an easy-to-use and accessible format. Organized by habitat and size,
entries for more than five hundred species each include descriptions,
illustrations, and diagnostic features, accompanied by information on
distribution, habitat, and relationship to other Aloe species.
Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Alabama.
Robert Kral, et al. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-889878-34-8. 112 pp. Paperback. $28.00
The Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Alabama presents the first
comprehensive statewide checklist of vascular plants for Alabama in over 100
years. Despite numerous county-level and regional plant checklists, Alabama has
lacked a comprehensive and modern checklist or flora of since Charles Mohr’s
1901 publication of Plant Life of Alabama. This compilation is based on
thousands of voucher collections made primarily by the authors over decades of
field work in the state. This annotated checklist of vascular plants includes
notes on rarity, nativity and selected synonyms. The combined total of 3,743
species and 1,120 genera in 204 families indicates considerable floristic
variety and elevates Alabama high among states with great overall plant
diversity.
The Mosses of Madre de Dios, Peru.
Piers Majestyk and John Janovec. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-889878-36-2. 61 b/w line
drawings, 6 color plates. Paperback. $30.00
In this field manual the authors present a guide to the mosses currently known
from eastern Madre de Dios, Peru, with focus on the Los Amigos River watershed
and specifically, the Los Amigos Biological Station and Conservation Concession.
Treated are some 63 species in 40 genera and 28 families. Keys, detailed
descriptions, ecological information, and illustrations are provided. A
glossary, reference section, and index are included.
The Last Great Plant Hunt: The Story of the Millennium Seed Bank Project.
Carolyn Fry, et al. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464328. 192 pp., 155 color plates.
Hardcover. $45.00
With climate change posing an escalating threat to biodiversity, the need for
humans to conserve seeds from all plant species is increasingly critical. In the
fight against extinction, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank is a unique global asset.
The largest wild plant seed bank in the world, it contains the world’s most
diverse seed collection, comprising more than three-and-a-half billion seeds
from nearly twenty-five thousand distinct species.
Champion Trees of Britain and Ireland: The Tree Register Handbook.
Owen Johnson. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464526. 300 pp., 200 color plates. Paperback.
$40.00
This encyclopedic volume coves over 5,000 trees, 60% of which are newly
discovered or rerecorded since the last publication of the Tree Register in
2003. Dazzlingly illustrated throughout, part one of Champion Trees lists all
existing species alphabetically by botanical name. Part two offers a guide to
visiting thousands of Britain and Ireland’s finest specimens, listing trees by
geographical region and county and describing the tallest, largest, and finest
trees in each area. It also includes a checklist of all native trees and
fascinating facts about “superlative trees”—the oldest, tallest, thickest,
fastest-growing, and rarest trees in the British Isles. Champion Trees concludes
with a checklist of native tree species in cultivation and instructions for
measuring a tree.
Flora of the Guianas Series A: Phanerogams Fascicle 28. Leguminosae Subfamily 87. Mimosoideae. M. J. Jansen-Jacobs. 2011. ISBN: 9781842464373. 360 pp., 42 line drawings, 1 map. Paperback. $115.00
A Field Guide to the Flora of South Georgia.
Deirdre Galbraith. 2011. ISBN: 978-0-9564546-0-7. 72 pp., 134 color photos.
Softcover. $35.00
South Georgia, an island in the subantarctic Atlantic Ocean, part of the British
overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. A handy
photographic guide to all 24 of South Georgia's native plants and a selection of
the introduced plants found around Grytviken. Aimed at anyone interested in
knowing more about the flora and botanical exploration of this fascinaing
island, this easy-to-use book is an essential companion for botanists and
naturalists alike.
Niger Flora: Or, An Enumeration of the Plants of Western Tropical Africa.
Edited by William Jackson Hooker. 1849, 2011 reprint. ISBN: 9781108030380. 668
pp., 45 b/w illustrations, 1 map. Paperback. $48.00
German scientist Theodore Vogel (1812–1841) joined an 1841 expedition to the
Niger as its chief botanist. He died in the course of the journey, though not
before taking extensive notes about the plants that he encountered. His
botanical collection and diary were passed to the botanist William Jackson
Hooker (1785–1865), who had been appointed as the first full-time director of
Kew Gardens in the same year. Hooker edited Vogel's diary and observations and
the resulting work, Niger Flora, was published in 1849. Because Vogel's period
in West Africa was cut short by his untimely death, much of the work looks at
the flora of the places the expedition stopped at along the way – Madeira,
Tenerife and the Cape Verde islands, before giving details – including numerous
illustrations – about west African plants. The works also includes observations
on African flora by other botanists, including Joseph Dalton Hooker, William's
son.
A Systematic Vademecum to the Vascular Plants of Puerto Rico.
Franklin S. Axelrod. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-889878-33-1. 420 pp. Paperback. $55.00
This checklist covers 2909 taxa that are included in 1053 genera and 210
families. Of these taxa 2335 (80.2%) are native and 574 (19.7%) are exotic; of
the native ones, 243 (10.4%) are endemic.
Have you ever wondered where a Puerto Rican plant grows, when it flowers, where
it comes from? Well, here is an annotated checklist of the vascular plants
presently found growing in the wild on the island of Puerto Rico that will be an
invaluable aid to botanists, ecologists, foresters and any one else interested
in the flora of Puerto Rico. Here you will find the distribution of vascular
plants within the island provided according to a novel scheme that incorporates
both broad physiographic areas and specific geographical sites. These are both
described in the text and illustrated by three maps. You will also find useful
information on the times of flowering, fruiting, and spore production for each
plant and also references for each one to recent monographs on Puerto Rican
plants where a fuller description of each can be found.
An Agreeable Landscape: Historical Botany and Plant Biodiversity of a Sonoran
Desert Bottomland, 1855-1920. Kathryn Mauz.
2011. ISBN: 978-1-889878-35-5. 234 pp. Paperback. $40.00
An Agreeable Landscape: Historical Botany and Plant Biodiversity of a Sonoran
Desert Bottomland, 1855–1920 is an accounting of plant life in the Santa Cruz
and Rillito valleys of the Tucson Basin. Primary documents, historical
narratives, and more than 1200 dried plant specimens are the foundation for this
exploration of floristic richness, bottomland habitats, and ecological change.
Over time, a convergence of cultural, political, and scientific currents at
Tucson—arguably the seat of the Santa Cruz watershed—have made this the
best-documented riparian ecosystem in the Sonoran Desert for this time period.
This original compilation affords a vantage point from which to view the
historic bottomland among the spectrum of riparian conservation in the region
today, as well as to inform those ongoing efforts in a watershed that, even
diminished, remains a biological resource of international importance.
Distribution of Grasses in Texas.
Robert B. Shaw, et al. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-889878-32-4. 196 pp. Paperback. $30.00
This book is a compilation of information about the distribution of grasses in
the 12 ecoregions and 254 counties of Texas. We found 721 species reported for
the state and over 19,000 county distribution records. Featured in the book are
a checklist of species by ecoregion, summaries of the number of documented
species per county, and the number of counties where the top 101 species have
been collected. The largest parts of the book are two major lists. The first
list is a record of grass species for each county; the second, documents the
counties where a particular species has been collected. Data presented clearly
indicates that the Poaceae, the most economically important of all plant
families, is poorly collected across the state. Distribution of cultivars,
ornamentals, and noxious or invasive weedy species, as well as numerous native
perennial taxa, are poorly documented. Even common species need collecting. The
authors hope that this work will stimulate collection of Texas grasses, and that
specimens will be properly preserved in Texas herbaria.
Vanilla Orchids: Natural History and Cultivation.
Ken Cameron. 2011. ISBN: 9780881929898. 212 pp., 140 color photos.
Hardcover. $34.95
With more than 30,000 known species, orchids represent the largest family of
plants. But only one genus has agricultural value—the Vanilla orchid. Leading
orchid expert Ken Cameron covers the natural history of the world’s most popular
flavor and fragrance and provides an introduction to the pollination, biology,
structure, evolution, and diversity of Vanilla and related orchids. Vanilla
Orchids also features methods for bean harvest, curing, and processing for
enthusiasts who want to try it at home.
Guide to Standard Floras of the World: An Annotated, Geographically Arranged
Systematic bibliography of the Principal Floras, Enumerations, Checklists and
Chorological Atlases of Different Areas. 2nd Edition.
David G. Frodin. 2011. ISBN: 9780521189774. 1126 pp. Paperback. $160.00
This book provides a selective annotated bibliography of the principal floras
and related works of inventory for vascular plants. The second edition has been
completely updated and expanded to take into account the substantial literature
of the late twentieth century, and features a more fully developed review of the
history of floristic documentation. The works covered in this volume are
principally specialist publications such as floras, checklists, distribution
atlases, systematic iconographies and enumerations, or catalogues. In addition,
some popularly oriented books are also included. The Guide is organized in ten
geographical divisions, with these successively divided into regions and units,
each of which is prefaced with a historical review of floristic studies. The
book also includes general chapters on botanical bibliography, the history of
floras, general principles and current trends, plus an appendix on bibliographic
searching, a lexicon of serial abbreviations, and author and geographical
indexes.
Ecology of Leaf Longevity. Kihachiro
Kikuzawa and Martin J. Lechowicz. 2011. ISBN: 978-4-431-53917-9. 147 pp., 77
illustrations. Hardcover. $139.00
Leaf longevity is a fundamental process underlying patterns of variation in
foliar phenology and determining the distinction between deciduous and evergreen
plant species. Variation in leaf longevity is associated with a wide array of
differences in the physiology, anatomy, morphology and ecology of plants. This
book brings together for the first time information scattered widely in the
botanical literature to provide a clear and comprehensive introduction to the
nature and significance of variation in leaf longevity. It traces the
development of ideas about leaf longevity from the earliest descriptive studies
to contemporary theory of leaf longevity as a key element in the function of
leaves as photosynthetic organs. An understanding of variation in leaf longevity
reveals much about the nature of adaptation at the whole plant level and
provides fundamental insights into the basis of variation in plant productivity
at the ecosystem level. The analysis of leaf longevity also provides a
process-based perspective on phenological shifts associated with the changing
climate. Readers will find this an informative synthesis summarizing and
illustrating different views in a readily accessible narrative that draws
attention to a central aspect of plant biology.
Plant Galls. Margaret Redfern. 2011. ISBN:
9780002201438. 400 pp., 150 color photos, 50 color illustrations. Hardcover.
$75.00
A much-needed new study on growths on plants formed of plant tissue but that are
caused by other organisms. The subject of plant galls is wide-ranging, and yet
so little is known about the mechanisms that cause gall formation as well as the
life cycles of the organisms that initiate gall growth. Since most galls do not
cause any economic damage to crop plants, research funding has traditionally
been sparse in this area. However, the insect cycles and gall structures are
amazing examples of the complexity of nature. Most naturalists have come across
oak apples, robin's pincushions, marble galls, and witches' brooms. These are
some of the more familiar examples of the strange growths that are plant galls:
beautiful, often bizarre and colorful, and amazingly diverse in structure and in
the organisms which cause them. They have been known since ancient times; both
the ancient Greeks and the Chinese used them in herbal medicine, and in later
times they had a variety of commercial uses. Plant galls vary in size and
structure from small bumps, pustules, pimples and hairy patches to large
swellings and bizarre growths, nothing like any structure typically produced by
plants. Margaret Redfern explores these fascinating complexities in this latest
New Naturalist volume, providing much-needed insight into the variety of galls
of different types caused by a wide range of organisms including fungi, insects,
and mites. She discusses the ecology of galls more generally and focuses on
communities of organisms within galls, the evolution and distribution of galls,
and human and historical perspectives.
Annual Plant Reviews, Volume 43: Biology of Plant Metabolomics.
Robert D. Hall. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4051-9954-4. 448 pp. Hardcover. $199.95
Concentrating on the biology and biological relevance of plant metabolomics,
each chapter, written by internationally-acknowledged experts in the field from
at least two different research groups, combines a review of the existing
biological results with an extended assessment of possible future developments
and the impact that these will have on the type of research needed for the
future. Following a general introduction, this exciting volume includes details
of metabolomics of model species including Arabidopsis and tomato. Further
chapters provide in-depth coverage of abiotic stress, data integration, systems
biology, genetics, genomics, chemometrics and biostatisitcs. Applications of
plant metabolomics in food science, plant ecology and physiology are also
comprehensively covered.