Les Orchidees de Madagascar
(Orchids of Madagascar)
By Jean Bosser & Marcel Lecoufle – (2011)
496 pages, gloss art paper, with 846 colour photographs, 29 monochrome illustrated plates & 2 maps.
Soft Cover. 24cm x 16.6cm.
ISBN: 978-2-914817-56-1
Biotope, Meze France.
Language: Bilingual – French & English
This is quite an amazing book which makes a great companion to other recently published titles on Madagascan orchids listed below. It covers nearly 400 species written in a simple yet authoritative manner which anyone can understand. The opening pages cover the ancient geological parent rock material, history of collecting and studying wild orchids globally but in particular Madagascar and some of those botanists and horticulturalists whom have worked on Madagascan orchids. It goes into climate and factors effecting climate, endism of its species, phytogeography, different seasons, rainfall, habitat and vegetation and the saddening destruction of its unique forests by man.
The species are presented in their genera alphabetically. Each species has its botanical name, author and year published followed by a brief description of the plant and flowers, notes on habitat ecology and flowering times. This is enhanced by at least 1 colour photo most species have 2-3 photos and a few also accompanied by artistic technical illustrations. 10 of the 19 illustrations are of Bulbophyllum. Most of the photos are pretty good quality with many of the shots being plants flowering in situ as well mixed with those in cultivation, a few photos are unfortunately a little out of focus or too dark. However, they are still useful. Of the 846 photos presented in this book most are of flowers (which growers should love!) and only 36 of them are distinctly landscape, forest and habitat shots.
Overall this is a pretty good book packed with hundreds of nice photos and written by two people who have many decades of experience with Madagascan orchids (as botanists, explorers, researchers and cultivators) and contains photographs of many species not found in other books. If you owned this book and “Field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar” Cribb & Hermans (2009), “Orchids of Madagascar 2nd Edition” Hermans, Hermans, Du Puy, Cribb & Bosser (2007) and “Angraecoid Orchids Species from the African Region” Stewart, Hermans & Cambell (2006) you would then have photos and information of nearly every currently known orchid species from Madagascar and certainly the best modern literature available on its wild orchids.
Rod Rice
Principal Reviewer
Nature & Travel Books