This splendid book provides the visitor to Galapagos with a compact plant guide. Fully illustrated in colour and covering 390 species, the book will be invaluable to both the non-specialist and the expert.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #530638 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 370 pages

Synopsis
The Galapagos are home to a wide-ranging assortment of unusual plants and animals and became famous as the site of Darwin's research leading to his theory of evolution and natural selection. Based on the author's 16 years of fieldwork, this volume is an in-depth guide to the plant life of the area.

Intended as a resource for tourists, natural history enthusiasts and professionals, the book: introduces the botanical history of the islands and their varied ecological zones; allows easy identification of 436 flowering plants (77 families, 193 genera and 389 species); covers endemic plants found exclusively on the island, as well as native plants which grow on the Galapagos and elsewhere, and exotic plants present as a result of human actions; offers thorough accounts of the plants which give the scientific, common and family names, range, islands inhabited, description and additional notes of interest; is illustrated with 266 colour photographs of flowering plants and 117 of plant pollinators, vegetation zones, non-flowering plants, and the islands themselves; organizes species by form, leaf arrangement and flower colour and includes descriptive plant drawings to aid identification; and provides a map of the Galapagos and a list of plants likely to be seen at popular tourist sites.

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Customer Reviews

Easy to use for any beginner.
I found the "Flowering Plants of the Galapagos" to be a very useful and user-friendly flower guide. The discussion on how to use the guide was thorough yet simple enough for the botanical novice to understand the information. The "Introduction" section was helpful in acquanting the user with the general characterists of the archipelago and the vegetation zones of the islands. This section not only assists the reader in knowing where specific plants may be located, but also gives some insight into the ecology of the plants. I found the key to be one of the most straight-forward and user-friendly that I have used. Even the most botanically challenged individual could easily work through the logical progression of choices offered in the key. The amount of information given with each plant is also a positive attribute to this guide book. The author clearly outlines the range of the plants and lists the islands in which the plants inhabit, which is a very useful piece of information. The habitat is given along with a thorough description of the plant. Lastly, the additional comments offer a nice touch of the plants natural history, use, or some other piece of interesting trivia. I thought the author did a superb job of presenting the amazing flora of the Galapagos in a simple, easy to understand fashion that any visitor could appreciate. Lastly, the quality of the photos truly add to the attractiveness and effectiveness of the book.

Not for beginners
This book is not desinged for the beginner who wishes to start identifying plants and flowers on the galapagos Islands. There were good picture details but unless you knew roughly what family the plant comes from then it could prove confusing. It would have been alot more useful if plants and flowers of each island had been detailed seperately, i.e, island, tree, cactus, plant, ect. Found the recently published Collins Guide to the galapagos which covered both plants and animals very useful, well laid out and easy to refer to

Not for easy reference
This book was not so easy to use. Often found it difficult to know where to start when trying to identify plants, trees on the islands. If you already have a sound understanding of horticulture than maybe this book would be suitable, otherwise I do not think it is designed for someone who would just like to identify the plants etc on an amature level although did contain good pictures. Found the 'Collins Safari Guide to the Galapagos Isles' much easier to refer to and covered both plants and animals with good detailed pictures.