Guide to the Flowers of Western China Hardcover – September 15, 2011

This book was recommended to me by a Chinese plant collector who also sells Chinese language books on the flora of China as the "perfect book".I have to agree this book is very comprehensive and appears to have clear bright full color photos of every plant listed along with plant descriptions, locality and habitat. This is a major step forward in regional plant books for the plant lover who is not an academic botanist, though I suspect botanists will reach for this book first before consulting the large technical flora books of China.The scope of the book is clearly established in the introduction which includes regional descriptions, climate info and divides the area covered into 9 floristic regions. Maps are included in the introduction and several general regional maps are cleverly located on the end sheets for ease of use. This book should be nearby when reading seed lists or articles that reference Chinese plants or Chinese regions. The plant information is presented in typical botanical organization: Gymnosperms (cone bearing) followed by Angiosperms (seed bearing)and further subdivided by plant families.The index is very useful but the layout of the color photos on the page facing the plant descriptions is a wonderful feature. Essentially every other page has about 8 plant photos and a caption block facing the page of the detailed plants descriptions. No searching through the book for the photos or the descriptions!Clearly the authors went the extra mile to create a useful book that included the top wishes I wish Timber Press would adopt this photo format on all their titles.The only possible draw back is the relatively thin paper quality that allows 640 pages to fit in a 1 inch text block. However the relatively slim size and weight is good for the backpack and the crowded bookshelf. It was interesting to note this this book on Chinese plants was printed and bound in Germany on FSC "MIX" paper from responsible sources! The book is issued without a dust wrapper and has a printed cover like typical college textbooks.

An excellent book for a difficult area for botanical literature, and many species are clearly illustrated for use in identification. Highly recommended.

A beautiful book that is up to date, scientifically accurate and well worth the largish price. This is by far the best book on the Flora of Western China, but being fairly large is not really a pocket field guide, more of a reference book.

This is a well-composed and thoroughly comprehensive compendium of Chinese plants. Each plant is characterized by botanical description, which facilitates recognition, lots of very good, clear pgotographs make reading enjoyable and are very helpful. A truly useful reference guide for botanists and gardeners alike.

As we are going to China to look at plants in the wild next year I wanted to get a reference book. This one is just amazing and full of information.

excellent pictures love the book, has loads of information in it from china excellent read and good quality pictures overall remarkable

Das Buch giebt sehr gut Auskunft über die Flora von West China. Die Fotoqualität müßte noch verbessert werden. Ein Buch für Botanike, interessierte Reisende, Pflanzensammler un Kultivateure von Alpinen pflanzen.