Orchids of Madagascar Second Edition
By Johan & Clare Hermans, David Du Puy, Phillip Cribb & Jean Bosser – (2007)
398 pages; matt art paper; with 210 colour photographs on gloss plates, 2 maps & 29 botanical illustrations.
Hard Cover. 29cm x 20.8cm.
ISBN: 978-1-84246-133-4
Kew Publishing – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
This book is the follow up volume to the first “Orchids of Madagascar” published in 1999 (which I have not seen). It is an important and well researched volume of work, consisting predominantly of an extensive checklist of all known species at the time from Madagascar with a wide-ranging annotated bibliography relevant to the Madagascan orchids.
The book opens with a brief chapter on the history of Madagascar’s orchids and those who collected and described them. Including some revealing factors about certain well known orchid persons of the 19th century, whom were not keen to pay for thousands of plants sent back to England for resale.
From here it goes into the checklist of species, no generic boundaries are described and the species are listed alphabetically starting with the genus name. Each species has its name, author, place and year of publishing, including details of the type collection. Synonymous names are listed if relevant also with place and year of publication and details of their type collection if known. Further brief information is provided for each species under some or all of the following subheadings. Distribution; Habitat; Altitude; Flowering Time; Life Form; Phytogeographical Region; Description; Illustration and Notes. Under notes, further information is provided for each species, the degree and content of which varies from species to species.
After this a list or index of synonyms, is provided. In the middle of this index is where all of the colour plates are located. The photos are generally very nice quality with some fantastic shots including pics of numerous rare species. 200 of these photos are of orchid flowers with 10 others providing an insight to the different forest types, landscape and topography of Madagascar including a spectacular sunset shot of a stand of mature Adansonia grandidieri (Bottle Trees) in the foreground reflecting off pooled water.
The book concludes with notes on nomenclatural changes of the Madagascan Orchidaceae consisting of new combinations and synonyms before going into the annotated bibliography.
This volume is an essential reference for anyone doing any serious study of Madagascar’s wild orchids and the many lovely colour plates will captivate anyone who appreciates plant life generally.
Rod Rice
Principal Reviewer
Nature & Travel Books