Two new books that reveal the glory and complexity of the botanical world through images, text and authoritative explanation.
Both of these books take on the challenge of making botany accessible to all in a similar fashion. Multiple authors, with impeccable academic credentials, lead the reader on an exploratory journey from root hairs to shoot tips, reproductive systems and seed dispersal, explaining form and function in intimate detail along the way.
How Plants Work relies on text for more detailed explanations, accompanied by diagrams and electron microscopy images, with ‘box outs’ highlighting specific points of interest. Flora follows a simple format relying more on beautiful images and information delivered in bitesized, easily digestible captions; both books are filled with fascinating facts to increase our understanding of plants.
Where they diverge is that Blackmore’s book concludes with a chapter on People and Plants, emphasising our dependence on plants and the urgent need for plant conservation; Flora is punctuated by text on the role of plants in art and studies of individual species.
How Plants Work is detailed – like an expansive, well-illustrated text book; Flora, in a larger format, with bold images combining beauty and science, is more of an educational, informative coffee table book. (Do not overlook the botanical prints hidden in a sleeve inside the back cover.)
The consistent use of large images in Flora, although excellent for portraying minutiae, can become overwhelming for larger subjects, while text heavier How Plants Work, may prove intimidating to some.
But both make the subject accessible and enjoyable, reminding us of the astonishing beauty and complexity of the plants on which we all depend.