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An updated, comprehensive guide to the orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean region.
Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean is a comprehensive photographic guide to the orchids of the region written by leading experts, who between them have decades of orchid field and research experience. The book covers orchids from Europe and the Mediterranean, extending to Turkey and the immediate near east of North Africa and Macaronesia.
Many guides to orchids of this region exist, but in this completely revised second edition, the authors have drawn on the latest scientific research to bring clarity to orchid identification and names, with an emphasis on the natural variability that exists in many wild species. This edition incorporates the latest updates in taxonomy. With over 2000 colour photographs and new images, the book provides the reader with an accessible and easy-to-use identification guide to the natural variability seen in these orchids.
The book covers thirty genera and their species including Ophrys, Cypripedium, Orchis, Dactylorhiza, Epipactis, and Serapias, as well as seventy natural hybrids. Much of the confusion over identification is due to the morphological variation a species can have within a habitat and across its distribution, and therefore to simplify identification, several images accompany each species to illustrate this diversity, along with notes on distinguishing features and distribution maps. Each species is also accompanied by common names and important synonyms, as well as notes on habitat, flowering times, and distinguishing features.
Rolf Kühn is associated with the Swiss Orchid Foundation at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He has spent more than 40 years exploring for and photographing orchids. Henrik Ærenlund Pedersen was previously Associate Professor and Curator at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and runs the consultancy Select Nature.
Review of the first edition:
"[...] For any book of this nature, you have to look at the competition, and really there is very little. The most recent edition of Delforge, Orchidées d’Europe, published by Delachaux & Niestlé, dates from 2016 and is available only in French (and it is certainly not without its faults). Other books are much older. If you are mainly a visitor to one country, it would be worth seeking out more local guides to reduce the number of species. But if you travel widely through Europe in search of orchids, then this is the book for you – it is well illustrated and good value, despite its shortcomings."
– Bob Gibbons, British Wildlife 31(3), February 2020
