Nick Knight

Sandra Knapp

The young British photographer Nick Knight discovered the beauty of dried plants on a stroll through the herbarium, the "library of pressed flowers," at the Natural History Museum in London. These flowers were a source of such fascination to the photographer that in 1997 he devoted his second large photo album to them. A classic of plant photography, Nick Knight: Flora is now available again in an unchanged edition.

Flora

A vividly illustrated meeting with thirty plants and their inspiring namesakes Shakespeare famously asserted that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and that’s as true for common garden roses as it is for the Megacorax, a genus of evening primroses. Though it may not sound like it, the Megacorax was actually christened in honor of famed American botanist Peter Raven, its name a play on the Latin words for “great raven.” In this lush and lively book, celebrated botanist Sandra Knapp explores the people whose names have been immortalized in plant genera, presenting little-known stories about both the featured plants and their eponyms alongside photographs and botanical drawings from the collections of London’s Natural History Museum. Readers will see familiar plants in a new light after learning the tales of heroism, inspiration, and notoriety that led to their naming. Take, for example, nineteenth-century American botanist Alice Eastwood, after whom the yellow aster—Eastwoodia elegans—is named. Eastwood was a pioneering plant collector who also singlehandedly saved irreplaceable specimens from the California Academy of Sciences during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Or more recently, the fern genus Gaga, named for the pop star and actress Lady Gaga, whose verdant heart-shaped ensemble at the 2010 Grammy Awards bore a striking resemblance to a giant fern gametophyte. Knapp’s subjects range from Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (Darwinia), and legendary French botanist Pierre Magnol—who lends his name to the magnolia tree—to US founding figures like George Washington (Washingtonia) and Benjamin Franklin (Franklinia). Including granular details on the taxonomy and habitats for thirty plants alongside its vibrant illustrations, this book is sure to entertain and enlighten any plant fan.

From Attenborough to Washington, the People behind Plant Names

In the Name of Plants

J. R. Press

Paul House

Indalesio Sánchez

Edgardo Benitez

Mayangna panan basni

The author of Flora Mesoamerica presents essays on twenty fascinating plant families, including cacti, daffodils, iris, magnolia, poppies, roses, tulips, conifers, hibiscus, palms, and waterlillies, taking readers on a colorful tour of the natural and human history surrounding each plant.

A Botanist's Voyage Through Plant Exploration

Plant Discoveries

"Written by Museum botanist Dr Sandra Knapp, this compact little book explores Wallace's Amazonian expedition. He spent four years from 1848 - 1852 exploring the Upper Amazon Basin, a vast area of rainforest where few Europeans had ever been before, collecting thousands of specimens. The book describes Wallace's arduous journey, looks at his development as a naturalist and explains how the loss of most of his specimens during his journey home affected his future" --

Footsteps in the Forest

Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazon

"Extraordinary Orchids reveals some of the bizarre life-styles and interactions that botanists have uncovered among different categories of orchids: the epiphytic orchids, the ground-dwelling ones, the insect-mimicking ones and those whose lifestyles are so closely bound to their interactions with insects and birds. Many orchid common names refer to the shape-shifting forms of the orchid flower - the 'man-orchids' or 'monkeyorchids' are so called because of their resemblance to the primate form. Orchids lend themselves to depiction, and botanical artworks of them abound. Who could resist painting or drawing such odd shapes? Celebrated botanist Sandra Knapp examines each category of orchid in turn and all are illustrated with stunning artwork from artists such as Ferdinand and Franz Bauer, Arthur Harry Church, Sydney Parkinson, Henry Fletcher Hance, John Russell Reeves, and images taken from James Bateman's The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala"--

Extraordinary Orchids

Iris E. Peralta

David M. Spooner

Taxonomy of Wild Tomatoes and Their Relatives (Solanum Sect. Lycopersicoides, Sect. Juglandifolia, Sect. Lycopersicon; Solanaceae)

Quentin D. Wheeler

Letters to Linnaeus

This volume is a monograph of the 47 species of the Dulcamaroid clade of the large and diverse genus Solanum. Species in the group occur in North, Central and South America, and in Europe and Asia. The group is most species-rich in Peru and Brazil, and three of the component species, Solanum laxum of Brazil, Solanum seaforthianum of the Caribbean and and Solanum crispum of Chile are cultivated in many parts of the world. All species are illustrated and a distribution map of each is provided. All names are typified and nomenclatural and bibliographic details for all typifications presented. One new species from Ecuador is described. The monograph is the first complete taxonomic treatment of these species since the worldwide monograph of Solanum done by the French botanist Michel-Felix Dunal in 1852.

A Revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae)

With specially commissioned photographs showing every single panel and full of intriguing plant histories, this book is a fascinating insight into one of London's best kept secrets.

Sandra Knapp

About

Books

Join the club