| British & Irish Wildflowers and Plants – A Pocket Guide | Rachel Hamilton, Chris Gibson & Robert Still | WILDGuides | 2024 | Flexibound | 320 Pages, 2000 colour photos, colour illustrations, colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9780691245409 | £12.99 |
The Publisher’s View:
This innovative photographic guide covers the most common wildflowers and other plants found in Great Britain and Ireland, as defined by the very latest distribution maps. It is designed so that anyone faced with an unfamiliar wild plant can confidently put a name to the species or recognise that it is a less common plant needing further investigation. The identification process is based on standard botanical features that are straightforwardly described, clearly illustrated and supported by a simple visual key to families. This book can be your springboard into the wider world of botanical identification, wherever you are, and of plants both common and rare.
The Authors: Rachel Hamilton has spent a lifetime teaching botany, ecology and conservation at every level, and has earned a reputation for helping newcomers understand and overcome challenges in identifying plants. Chris Gibson worked in nature conservation for three decades and now devotes his time to encouraging others to share his love of the natural world, through words, images and experiences. Robert Still is publishing director of WILDGuides, a prolific natural history author and a skilled field botanist and plant photographer.
Fatbirder View:
Frequent readers will know I really rate these WILDGuides and have a whole bunch of them on my handiest shelf. Some are getting a bit tatty as they are so well thumbed. It’s a great series, although they vary in usefulness and quality, there isn’t one I’d discard.
Like a lot of crumbly old birders, I’ve found my interest widening as I’ve aged. First it was butterflies then Odonata. Slack Autumn days in the woods have been greatly enhanced by colourful and truly weird fungi.
Wildflowers are new for me, having been triggered by the fact that, I happen to live in the best county for orchids and a few springs ago, literally hundreds of Southern Marsh orchids sprung up right in front of the bird hide I visit most. Naturally, I acquired the WILDGuides guide to Britain’s Orchids. Within a mile of that hide are half a dozen other orchids, two of them more numerous than anywhere else in the country.
Once you start seeking them out, you are bound to come across other flowering plants and on your interest grows.
So, in my third year of very amateur botany I’ve realised that there are a lot of very similar species out there. Using an on-line ID app with photos I snap on my phone gets me in the ball park. I’m not satisfied with a 60% hit, I now need to know why is a Field Forget-me-not and not a Tufted one. The app is no help.
What this super portable fieldguide shows me is what part of the plant I need a close-up photo of to decide between all the lookalikes out there.
This handy tome is going to have to live in the car now!
Fatbirder