Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #499907 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 20 pages

Customer Reviews

Not a pocket guide!
As I was planning a trip to Tenerife, and always interested in wildlife, I ordered this to take with me in the backpack on my hikes there. I thought the price of 12 GBP was a little high for a publication of only 20 pages, but reasoned that that was the price of a couple of beers on the island, so no problemo.

The publication itself is disappointing, to say the least. Instead of a slim, handy, pocket-book guide to the endemic species, the package consists of a big (31cm * 23cm = 12.2in * 9in) folder containing:

1) a glossy, heavyweight wall-chart measuring 93.5cm * 63cm (36.8in * 24.8in), which would be great for hanging up in the hotel room, but useless out in the field;

2) an A4-size booklet of 20 pages, of which 9 are introduction to the main vegetation zones, 1 page of index and 10 pages of actual plant illustrations and short descriptions - 41 species in all.

The illustrations themselves are more of interest to the amateur artist than to the botanist, since they all consist of simple water-colour sketches of the plants, some of which are not bad (Bloody Groundsel, Canary Foxglove), while others appear to be drawn from memory or the imagination (Guaidil: looking like a sprig of flowering confetti; Pipe: a bunch of green and yellow crabs on a muddy beach; or Teide Straw: an exploding box of cornflakes).

In short, this publication will give you a broad hint of what the Tenerife endemic plants are and where they are to be found; but the rest is up to your imagination. Barely worth 2 stars.