Flora of the Mediterranean: An Illustrated Guide

Description

A unique window on the floral wonders of the Mediterranean world The Mediterranean - a land of blue skies, warm sunshine, rugged mountains and azure seas. Yet this familiar image conceals another Mediterranean - a secret landscape populated by a dazzling variety of wild flowers and plants, from spectacular orchids and ancient olive trees to delicate snowdrops and hardy cacti. Following on from their widely acclaimed Flora of the Silk Road, Chris and Basak Gardner present a stunning selection of 600 of the finest wild flowers that grow in the Mediterranean regions of the world. Travelling across five continents - Europe, North America, Africa, South America and Australia - the authors reveal the rich botanical profusion that makes up the flora of the Mediterranean regions of the world. For each region, a succession of the most outstanding flowers is featured, from the spectacular and exotic to the beautiful yet familiar, with each plant presented in its natural habitat. Beginning with the countries of the Mediterranean Basin, the reader is taken along the rugged Atlas Mountains, through Andalucia and Italy, to arrive at the amazing botanical richness of Greece, southern Anatolia and Jordan. In California and Chile the journey is through flowering deserts, snow-capped peaks and towering forests of redwood and monkey puzzle trees, beside a coast lapped by the Pacific Ocean. The ancient landscapes of Southern Australia provide a truly remarkable assemblage of astonishing flora, whilst the Western Cape of South Africa is home to an unimaginable diversity of flora. The accompanying text provides descriptions of the species, plant families and their distribution, as well as offering guidance to those wishing to photograph plants in the wild. With 600 stunning colour photographs, and presenting a breadth of flora never before brought together in a single volume, the authors offer a unique window on the floral wonders of the Mediterranean world.

Chris and Basak Gardner are authors of the acclaimed Flora of the Silk Road (I.B. Tauris, 2014). They have led specialist botanical and wildlife tours worldwide for nearly two decades (www.viranaturatours.com). Both are professional botanists with extensive experience in identifying and photographing flowers. Basak was head of the herbarium at Nezahat Gokyigit Botanic Garden in Istanbul, whilst Chris is also an experienced garden designer and co-author of the successful book, The Plant Hunters (1998). Chris has been accorded the distinction of having a flower named after him - Bellevalia chrisii - a species he discovered whilst leading a tour with Basak in the Anti-Taurus mountains of Turkey.