There is an accompanying volume with illustrations.
This volume entirely comprises the orchid family, or Orchidaceae, with 1388 species in China, of which 491 are endemic, i.e., found nowhere else on Earth. The orchids of China include wild relatives of the source of the economically important vanilla pod, as well as the well-known cultivated genera Cymbidium and the slipper orchids, Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum. China has hundreds of other horticulturally important orchid species in genera such as Bletilla, Bulbophyllum, Calanthe, Coelogyne, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, Pleione, and Vanda. This volume is the only fully comprehensive and up-to-date, English-language account of the wild orchids of China.