Botanica Magnifica features two hundred and fifty stunning photographs of rare and exotic plants and flowers by Hasselblad Laureate Award winner Jonathan Singer. Botanica Magnifica features two hundred and fifty stunning photographs by Hasselblad Laureate Award winner Jonathan Singer, representing-in the words of an ARTnews critic-rare or exotic plants and flowers "in large scale and exquisite detail, emerging from the shadows in a manner evocative of Old Master paintings." The original edition of Botanica Magnifica, consisting of five lavishly hand-bound volumes, was limited to just ten copies, the first of which was recently donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The extra-large "double-elephant" format of that edition was chosen in homage to the famous double-elephant folio of The Birds of America, and indeed, Botanica Magnifica is one of the few works of natural history ever to rival Audubon's magnum opus in its scope and artistry. In praise of the double-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica, the Smithsonian's Chairman of Botany attested, "Everyone who has seen the photographs . . . has been tremendously impressed with the power, scale, and depth of the work." Now Singer's remarkable images are available to the public for the first time in this baby-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica. Like the larger edition, this volume is organized into five alphabetically arranged sections, each introduced by a gatefold page that displays one extraordinary plant at a luxurious size. Each pictured plant is accompanied by a clear and accessible description of its botany, geography, folklore, history, and conservation. With its marvelous reproductions and fascinating text, the baby-elephant folio of Botanica Magnifica is one of the most impressive volumes of natural history ever published. This volume is also available in a leatherbound, slipcased edition.

From Roman times to the present, knowledge of plants and their cultivation have exerted a deep impact on cultural changes. This book highlights the religious, artistic, political, and economic consequences of horticultural pursuits. Far from a mere trade, horticulture profoundly affected Jewish and Persian mystical poetry and caused deep changes in Ottoman arts. It contributed to economic and political changes in Judea, Al Andalus, Japan, Yuan China, early modern Mexico, Europe, and the United States. This book explores the roles of peasants, botanists, horticulturists, nurserymen and gentlemen collectors in these developments, and concludes with a reflection on the future of horticulture in the present context of widespread environmental devastation and ecological uncertainty.

The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants - toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds, to name a few - are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively on animals for reproduction. Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current conservation status of these essential species. In order to illustrate the striking beauty of these "ornaments" of the rainforest, the authors have included a series of breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and diagrams.

In the great tradition of DarwinGCOs "Voyage of the Beagle," this book is a first-person narrativeof daunting travel and scientific discovery in the little-known country of Myanmar.Dr. Kress explored many areas in this enigmatic country, surveying its teak forests, bamboo thickets, timber plantations, rivers, and mangroves to document its incrediblebotanical diversity. Myanmar is one of the great biodiversity GChot spotsGC in Asia, butbecause of its social isolation and reputation for political repression it has been closedto--or avoided by--many scientists. Nevertheless, Dr. Kress was determined to searchfor and record plants that had not been studied since they were first discovered byWestern botanists over a century ago. Among the rarities he came upon was a new speciesof plant called GCthe weeping goldsmith, GC a ginger flower whose Burmese name wasderived from the legend that the local goldsmiths were reduced to tears because noneof their own creations could rival its exquisiteness.
Dr. Kress also relates how he came to appreciate the people and culture ofMyanmar through an understanding of their flora, natural habitats, and human-dominatedenvironments. Included are fascinating excerpts from his field journals that serveas counterpoints to the accounts of earlier plant explorers. Illustrating the text are some200 of Dr. KressGCOs own color photographs of the incredible plants, people, landscapes, and temples he witnessed in his travels as well as 30 archival images of Burma taken bypast explorers. The back matter features an illustrated portfolio of representative nativeplants.
This lively armchair exploration should appeal to a general readership as well as tobotanists, conservationists, and environmentalists.