Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland

About this book

This is the first fully-illustrated and fully-mapped guide to the British and Irish flora, covering more than 1,900 species. Its restriction to the British Isles alone allows far more detail and more local information, and identification is made easier with the inclusion of maps for most species. Specific details about plants appearing in certain areas and accurate maps are designed to make location and identification easy, and Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland also includes details of local specialities for the Isles of Scilly. Also featured is an illustrated survey of recently disappeared British and Irish plants, some of which may return.

With over 5,000 detailed colour paintings and more than 1,600 maps, this is the most extensively illustrated wild flower guide to Britain and Ireland yet. Coloured, boxed keys to plants in complex or difficult groups are provided to assist identification. Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland also features information about grasses, which are often omitted in other, shorter books, along with sedges, rushes, horsetails and clubmosses. Ferns, though not strictly speaking flowering plants, are also included.

This new edition is fully revised to take into account recent taxonomic changes, as well as changes in status and distribution.

Contents

Introduction
Further reading
Glossary

The Wild Flowers
- Aquatic plants with all leaves submerged
- Trees and tall shrubs
- Grasses, sedges and rushes
- Ferns, horsetails and clubmosses
- Spcialities of the Isles of Scilly and West Cornwall
- Irish specialities
- Extinct British and Irish plants

Index of scientific names
Index of English names

Customer Reviews

Biography

Marjorie Blamey is the doyenne of European botanical artists, the best known internationally and the most successful: her earlier books have sold over a million copies. Before devoting herself to botanical illustration in middle age, Mrs Blamey had in turns been a professional actress, photographer, wartime ambulance driver, and for 20 years a farmer's wife. She and her co-worker husband, Philip, live in St Germans, Cornwall.

The late Richard Fitter was one of the most experienced writers of field guides in Britain. He combined an encyclopaedic knowledge of British natural history with absolute clarity and precision in description and, like Marjorie Blamey, a level of energy rare in people half their age. Richard Fitter died in 2005.

Alastair Fitter is Richard's second son and Professor of Biology at the University of York. Already the author of earlier guides with his father and with Marjorie Blamey, here he has contributed all the maps.