This new title in the Crossbill Guides covers the well-known region of Dordogne in southwestern France. Like all other Crossbill Guides, this title poses and answers two key questions: what makes this area so special and how you can experience this uniqueness for yourself. This book describes the flora and fauna, landscape and traditional land use of this region plus 21 detailed routes and around 50 sites with specific suggestions on where and how to find the birds, wildlife and flora. The Dordogne area in south-west France has a remarkable range of wild landscapes. The beautiful rivers include tidal sections, marshes, cliffs and upland tributary streams set amongst limestone-dominated hills. Elsewhere diverse woodlands, hay meadows, caves, heathlands, arable plateaux plus ancient vineyards and villages also offer visitors great wildlife experiences in what has been called 'the cradle of mankind'.

Begin to Identify Mushrooms with This Great Visual Guide for Idaho, Oregon, and Washington! Mushrooming is a popular and rewarding pastime-and it's one that you can enjoy with the right information at hand. Mushrooms of the Northwest is the field guide to get you started. The region-specific book utilizes an innovative, user-friendly format that can help you identify mushrooms by their visual characteristics. Hundreds of full-color photographs are paired with easy-to-understand text, providing the details to give you confidence in the field. The information, written by foraging experts Teresa Marrone and Drew Parker, is accessible to beginners but useful for even experienced mushroom seekers. Learn about more than 400 species of common wild mushrooms found in the Northwest states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The species (from Morel Mushrooms to Shelf Mushrooms) are organized by shape, then by color, so you can identify them by their visual characteristics. Plus, with the Top Edibles and Top Toxics sections, you'll begin to learn which are the edible wild mushrooms and which to avoid. Get this field guide, jam-packed with information, and start identifying the mushrooms you find.

Flora of the Outer Hebrides is the first comprehensive publication to describe the flowering plants and ferns of the Outer Hebrides, comprising over 700 species. Introductory chapters cover the climate, geography, geology, soils, vegetation and botanical history of the area. Every effort has been made to give Gaelic names for plants, and a chapter is devoted to Gaelic plant folklore. This is a reprint edition of the book first published in 1994 (ISBN 0113100477).

St(r)phen RostainOCOs book is a culmination of 25 years of research on the extensive human modification of the wetlands environment of Guiana and how it reshapes our thinking of ancient settlement in lowland South America and other tropical zones. Rostain demonstrates that populations were capable of developing intensive raised-field agriculture, which supported significant human density, and construct causeways, habitation mounds, canals, and reservoirs to meet their needs. The work is comparative in every sense, drawing on ethnology, ethnohistory, ecology, and geography; contrasting island Guiana with other wetland regions around the world; and examining millennia of pre-Columbian settlement and colonial occupation alike. RostainOCOs work demands a radical rethinking of conventional wisdom about settlement in tropical lowlands and landscape management by its inhabitants over the course of millennia.

Designed to aid in the identification of over 4250 cultivated trees, shrubs and climbers of the world, this reference guide provides easy-to-access photographic information on a vast range of plants. The guide briefly descibes each genus, providing details of the country of origin, climatic preference, planting use and propogation method. Photographs of relevant species for that genus are shown along with a brief text giving their common name or names and typical characteristics and growth habits. All the plants are listed in alphabetical order by genus.

"Beautiful, useful, inspirational" BBC Wildlife Book of the Month "A delight on every page" Evening Standard In 1664, the horticulturist and diarist John Evelyn wrote Sylva, the first comprehensive study of British trees. It was also the world's earliest forestry book, and the first book ever published by the Royal Society. Evelyn's elegant prose has a lot to tell us today, but the world has changed dramatically since his day. Now authors Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet, taking inspiration from the original work, have masterfully created a contemporary version - The New Sylva. The result is a fabulous resource that describes all of the most important species of tree that populate our landscape. Silvologist Gabriel Hemery explains what trees really mean to us culturally, environmentally and economically in the first part of the book. These chapters are followed by forty-four detailed tree portrait sections that describe the history and the features of trees such as oak, elm, beech, hornbeam, willow, fir, pine, juniper, plane, apple and pear. The pages of The New Sylva are brought to life with truly breathtaking artwork from artist and co-author Sarah Simblet, who captures the delicacy, strength and beauty of the trees through the seasons in 200 exquisite drawings. With an interplay of black and red type on creamy paper, The New Sylva recalls all the charm of traditional bookmaking. And at a moment when it is vitally important for us to rediscover how to treasure our trees, the time for this visionary, beautiful book is now. This edition comes with illustrated endpapers and a ribbon marker.

Orchids of South Africa is the first field guide to local orchids to be published in over 30 years, and presents the more than 450 orchid species found in the region, including Lesotho and Swaziland.

A comprehensive roundup of orchids in their natural habitat, the book features:

- multiple photos for each species

- distribution maps

- flowering time-bars

- succinct text, enabling sure identification of these fascinating plants.

An illustrated introduction discusses orchid structure, ecology and conservation status.

Informative, colourful and easy-to-use, Orchids of South Africa is the authoritative update enthusiasts have been waiting for.

Scotland’s plants define its landscape – from the heather moorlands of its iconic habitats to the weeds and a garden plants of its towns and cities. Plants have shaped the country’s domestic economy and culture over centuries, providing resources for agriculture and industry as well as food, drink and medicines. They have even inspired children’s games and been used as components in magical charms Drawing together traditional knowledge from archives and oral histories with the work of some of the country’s finest botanical artists, this book is a magnificent celebration of the enormous wealth of Scottish plant lore.

Your Quick Guide to Identifying Wildflowers Beautiful, colorful wildflowers might catch your eye at the cabin, in the park, or on a hike. Now you can identify your favorites by name. When you're out and about, keep Wildflowers of the South & Southeast close at hand. Written by acclaimed nature author Jaret C. Daniels, this convenient guide showcases more than 150 species of wildflowers found in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Designed for ease of use, the tabbed booklet is organized by color for simple identification. Do you see a purple flower and don't know what it is? Open the "Blue to Purple" tab, and view photographs of just a few wildflowers at a time. The detailed pictures with key markings help to ensure positive ID for even casual observers. The pocket-sized format is much easier to use than laminated foldouts, and the tear-resistant pages help to make the booklet durable. So bring this lightweight quick guide along on your next hike, camping trip, or neighborhood walk, and improve your identification skills with every wildflower sighting.

This new book by Sierra expert Elizabeth Wenk includes photos and descriptions of approximately 300 species of wildflowers and flowering shrubs in the High Sierra. Focused on areas above 8,000 feet in elevation from Yosemite south through the Whitney Region, by restricting the collection of species to higher elevations, the book can include all commonly seen species and nearly half of all higher elevation species in a compact guide. Make plant identification more approachable to hikers, this book differentiates between species using features easily identifiable to a non-botanist. Descriptions include the species' common and scientific names, family name, growth form, flowering time, elevation range, region, specific locations on popular trails, and how to identify the plant using color, petal number, leaf shape, height, and more.

From the author of The History of the World in 100 Animals, a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week, comes an inspirational new book that looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity, stunningly illustrated throughout. As humans, we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands. But we still consume the energy of the sun in the form of food. The sun is available for consumption because of plants. Plants make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis; nothing else in the world can do this. We eat plants, or we do so at second hand, by eating the eaters of plants. Plants give us food. Plants take in carbon dioxide and push out oxygen: they give us the air we breathe, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate. Plants also give us shelter, beauty, comfort, meaning, buildings, boats, containers, musical instruments, medicines and religious symbols. We use flowers for love, we use flowers for death. The fossils of plants power our industries and our transport. Across history we have used plants to store knowledge, to kill, to fuel wars, to change our state of consciousness, to indicate our status. The first gun was a plant, we got fire from plants, we have enslaved people for the sake of plants. We humans like to see ourselves as a species that has risen above the animal kingdom, doing what we will with the world. But we couldn't live for a day without plants. Our past is all about plants, our present is all tied up with plants; and without plants there is no future. From the mighty oak to algae, from cotton to coca here are a hundred reasons why.

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms is indispensable to anyone fascinated by mushrooms and other fungi. Lavishly illustrated, it contains detailed information about 420 types of mushrooms and other fungi found in the United States and Europe. The comprehensive introduction provides general information on the structure, reproduction, life cycles, classification, and distribution of the various species and describes the individual parts of the fungus as well. The entries describe the appearance, habitat, and geographic distribution of each species of fungi. The easy-to-use visual key provides each entry with immediately recognizable symbols that indicate spore color, ecological environment, and whether the species is edible or poisonous. A glossary and analytical index, plus an Index to Genera for locating particular subjects, help make this the most beautiful, valuable, and authoritative book in the field.

An essential guide to every species of tree found in the British Isles outside of arboretums This easy-to-use guide covers the 360 species of tree that are found in Britain & Ireland. Each species is covered in detail with information on how to identify, whether from a leaf, twig, bark or whole tree, plus extra information on where the tree grows (including a map), how high they grow, what uses the tree is used for and its unique history. Every species is also comprehensively illustrated with photographs of every useful feature - bark, leaf, seed, flower, twig and whole tree. Sample identification section: Silver Birch Betula pendula (Betulaceae) height to 26m A slender, fast-growing deciduous tree with a narrow, tapering crown when young and growing vigorously. Older trees acquire a weeping habit, especially if growing in an open, uncrowded situation.

South Africa has a rich flora of around 19 000 different wildflower species. For those who wish to know more about South Africa's wildflowers this very richness poses its own problems. Most flower guides cover little more than small stretches of the country and the others include too few species to be of much use. Photo Guide to the Wildflowers of South Africa aims to overcome these deficiencies. Carefully conceived to cover those wildflowers that are most likely to attract attention, this countrywide guide includes nearly 900 of the most common and conspicuous wildflowers that occur in South Africa and the neighbouring countries of Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. The English edition has been fully updated to reflect recent taxonomic changes. This book is now also for the first time available in Afrikaans. An easy-to-use format divides the country into three main wildflower regions, Grassland and Savannah, Fynbos and Namaqualand, grouping the species into each region. Each of the almost 900 species is illustrated and described, with information on its common and scientific names, habitat, distribution map, flowering times and local uses. An ingenious quick guide helps the reader to narrow down the options at a glance. Similar species are placed together to aid comparison and the concise text highlights their differences. Authored and illustrated by professionals with wide experience in producing guidebooks, Photo Guide to the Wildflowers of South Africa is the key to unlocking South Africa's wildflower heritage.

Sasol First Field Guide to Aloes of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the aloes of the region.

Full-colour photographs , distribution maps and easy-to-read text will help the budding naturalist to identify the more common aloes found in southern African gardens and landscapes, discover where they occur, and learn about their unique features.

"This monumental work, describing 1231 species of woody plants, with 1240 illustrations, is an incredible achievement in the history of natural science publishing. It is an immense production, indispensable to naturalists of the region." --American Forests Covering Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of the Southwest has come to be regarded as the definitive study of these plants.

'Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants' Guardian 'Bewitching ... a masterwork ... a glittering read in its entirety' Maria Popova, Brainpickings Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

Sasol Eerste Veldgids tot Bome van Suider-Afrika bied ’n fassinerende blik op die bome van die subkontinent. Met behulp van volkleurfoto's en verspreidingskaarte, asook maklik leesbare teks, sal die beginner en ontluikende natuurliefhebber die meer algemene bome in Suider-Afrika kan identifiseer, kan vasstel waar hulle groei, en meer te wete kom oor hul unieke eienskappe.

This plant glossary includes all descriptive terms used in floras, plant field guides and monographs. This is an essential companion for anyone working with plant descriptions, plant identification keys, floras, monographs and field guides. In this second edition 4,500 botanical terms are described with accompanying illustrations, including a new section on vegetation terms and an updated colour section. 'Catnip for the garden geek...this fascinating, authoritative volume may seduce even the most casual browser.' The New York Times, 27 May 2010

Syzygium is a well-known source of the globally traded clove as well as the widely cultivated jambolan, water apple, rose apple, wax apple, mountain apple, and several other underutilized species. These plants have multiple uses as edible fruits, medicine, spice, food colorants, and flavorings. The Genus Syzygium: Syzygium cumini and Other Underutilized Species provides an updated, comprehensive account of S. cumini and other underutilized species from a multidisciplinary perspective. This book covers all relevant aspects including the botany, systematics, phylogeny, life history, traditional medicinal uses, phytochemical constituents, pharmacology, pharmacopeia standards, horticulture, genetic resource conservation, biocontrol, and bioremediation values. It demonstrates how Syzygium cumini and other underutilized species hold great prospect for global pharmaceutical and horticultural trade. The Genus Syzygium will serve as the standard reference for a broad range of researchers interested in the various uses of S. cumini and eight underutilized Indo-Malaysian and Australasian species of Syzygium.

From the Foreword Umberto Quattrocchi has brought us some amazing and useful works through the various dictionaries that he has compiled. This time it is for two very important plant families the palms and the cycads that are synthesized here in these two volumes. Each entry is fascinating not just for the botany and full nomenclature of the plant species but for all the associated uses, folklore and interactions with other organisms. ...These entries are fascinating glimpses of natural history. ... Botanists, conservationists, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, geographers, bird watchers, naturalists, historians and those of many other disciplines will find these volumes a most valuable and useful resource. It is the sort of book that will be in frequent use in my library. ----- Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH, Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Following the same format as Umberto Quattrocchi's highly praised and well-used previous works, The CRC World Dictionary of Palms: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology brings together the vast and scattered literature on palms and cycads to provide better access to information on these economically important plants. Each genus and species has a detailed morphological description and includes a list of synonyms and vernacular names in many languages. Bibliographies accompany each entry which are comprehensive, up-to-date and multi-lingual. The detailed information for every entry on habitats, economic uses, historical and biographical data, botanical exploration, and linguistics will be useful for any library involved with botany, herbal medicine, pharmacognosy, medicinal and natural product chemistry, ecology, ethnobotany, systematics, general plant science, agriculture or horticulture. Umberto Quattrocchi is the author of the bestselling CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, winner of the prestigious Hanbury Botanical Garden Award. His most recent multi-volume work, CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants, received strong praise as being "... an unparalleled starting place-a tool of first resort for any thoughtful researcher. Quattrocchi and CRC have delivered a dictionary like no other, a learned finger pointing in the right direction." -John de la Parra, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, from Economic Botany, Vol. 68, 2014

The world is rich with marvellous forests and amazing communities of plants, animals, fungi and minute creatures that populate them. Learn all about the woods, experience each sound and smell and explore all the hidey-holes and cosy dens of its dwellers with this big and beautiful book all about forests, published in partnership with The Woodland Trust, the largest woodland conservation charity in the UK.

Marvel at the peaceful twilight of the deciduous forest, where birds gather twigs, bats shelter in tree trunks and the carpet of fallen leaves becomes small creatures' homes. Spot a bald eagle soaring high up in the winter sky through the towering green giants of the redwood forest. Discover all the noises in the Amazonian rainforest, where most creatures live in the tree canopy together, creating a symphony of sounds. Each forest has something special to offer and is invaluable.

Into the Forest is a celebration of trees and wildlife all around the world. Children will find out how trees change colour through seasons, how to plant their own trees and the importance of protecting our forests through sustainability. At the end of the book there's a glossary, full of fun trees with surprising names!

Even in the brick and concrete heart of our cities, nature finds a way. Birds and mammals, insects, plants and trees - they all manage to thrive in the urban jungle, and Bob Gilbert is their champion and their chronicler. He explores the hidden wildlife of the inner city and its edgelands, finding unexpected beauty in the cracks and crannies, and uncovering the deep and essential relationship that exists between people and nature when they are bound together in such close proximity. Beginning from Poplar, the East End area in which he lives, Bob explores, in particular, our relationship with the trees that have helped shape London; from the original wildwood through to the street trees of today. He draws from history and natural history, poetry and painting, myth and magic, and a great deal of walking, observing and listening.

This pocket field guide to identifying 230 common Alpine flowers is packed with all the information you need to recognise your favourites while out in the mountains. Designed for the non-specialist, this little handbook is arranged by colour and also includes a glossary of flower parts and an introduction which describes the amazing lengths that these tiny gems go to to survive at altitude. Alpine expert author Gillian Price says: 'It never ceases to amaze me that such tiny plants can spend months on end buried under metres of snow and ice - weathering temperatures as low as minus 25 DegreesC - then sprout back to life when things thaw out and warm up. In springtime you can spot the fragile purple petals of the Alpine Snowbell pushing their way through snow - they contain an anti-freeze that enables them to melt it. Masters of adaptation and survival, alpine flowers can trap insects, store precious water, expel excess minerals and fool insects.' Each flower entry includes a clear photograph and essential description along with its name in English, Latin, German, French and Italian and interesting information about the origins of some of the more curious flower names. Each one is also indexed by its English and its Latin name so you can follow up a hunch about a name or find out more about a flower.