NEW BOTANICAL BOOKS.
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T P Stokoe the man, the myths, the flowers |
This charming soft cover book is part autobiography and part biography of Thomas Pearson Stokoe, one of the great botanical explorers of the first half of the twentieth century. Stokoe arrived in Cape Town in 1911 aged 43 years and from that time to his death, in 1959, his life was taken up with climbing up mountains – frequently developing new routes, and discovering 150 new species of plants.
This enchanting book is sumptuously illustrated with Stokoe’s own paintings and sketches of his life in the Cape, botanical specimens and cartoons with which he decorated post cards. Old photographs show the history of his life and the book gives a wealth of information about the well known botanists and mountaineers of his time and the plants of the Cape floral kingdom.
A strongly recommended buy.
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Clivia – Nature and Nurture |
BRIZA Publications have produced yet another stunning book on indigenous South African plants, this time – the Clivia. Of course by now the Clivia is produced as a global commodity but it is important for us to know that this glorious plant originated in South Africa. Clivia – Nature and Nurture describes the origins of the Clivia species, it has the most wonderful images of the genus Clivia and every possible hybrid under the sun, instructions on how to grow Clivias and the various breeders and cultivars. More importantly for botanical artists, 6 full size plates of the most exquisite water colour paintings by Sibonela Chiliza are featured in the book.
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RONDEBOSCH COMMON Ilustrated by Betty Dwight First Published 2008-11-19 Friends of Rondebosch common Price R195 |
Rondebosch common is a large open area situated in the heart of urban Cape Town. It has a long colonial history and from the early 1800s was utilised as a military campsite, later it fell under the auspice of the Anglican church as grazing land for public use, today this large stretch of common land is administered by the City of Cape Town, and now enjoys plant conservation status. This fascinating book gives a good historical overview but its greatest interest lies in the description of the indigenous vegetation group and the flora and fauna which reside there. These chapters are written by eminent plant ecologists, zoologists, and entomologist. However the beauty of the book is in the wonderful, month by month, illustrations made by Betty Dwight.
Rondebosch Common supports a remnant of the national type known as Cape flats sand fynbos vegetation which contains many high endangered species of plants. Unfortunately due to urban development over 83% of this vegetative state has been lost and its conservation status is now considered critically endangered . This small book highlights to the general public the importance of conserving such rare pieces of common land found in large cities.
Wild Flowers of the Table Mountain
National Park
Text by Terry Trinder-Smith, illustrations by Mary Maytham Kidd and
Fay Anderson
Pubisher: The Botanical society of South Africa
Price: R250
The 1st edition of this book was published in 1950 by Oxford University Press with the title Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula the author and illustrator was the late Mary Maytham Kidd. The plant illustrations in this edition were of very good quality and were arranged according to the months of the year. This book has been in great demand and has been through many editions, unfortunately with each edition the quality of the reproductions appeared to become poorer. In 2005, with the guide almost out of print, the Botanical Society decided to bring our a new revised edition with a completely new format with an expanded text by Terry Trinder-Smith and additional illustrations by Fay Anderson, a well known botanical artist from the Western Cape. In this new addition a more scientific approach has been taken with plants arranged in families and digital images made from the original plates, this has made plant identification much easier.
The 2006 revised edition is beautifully illustrated with a very comprehensive text. However as is noted by Anton Rupert in the foreward of the 1983 edition “it is sad and sobering to note in this edition that numerous species common only three decades ago are seldom seen or possibly extinct in the Cape Peninsula today.”
This field guide is a must buy for people wishing to identify plants from the Table Mountain National Park.
Grass Aloes in the South African Veld
Charles Craib
Paintings by Gillian Condy
Drawings by Murray Ralfe
Publishers UMDAUS Press
Price R795
Gillian Condy is employed as the resident botanical artist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). She is a founder member and past president of the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa (BAASA). Three paintings presented in this book and exhibited at the Kirstenbosch Biennale Botanical art Exhibition in 2004 won gold medals.
The book describes in detail 28 grass aloes all found in the eastern summer rainfall parts of South Africa and growing mostly in grassland, either hilly or mountainous cliffs. For the botanical artist this book has considerable interest as each of the plants is painted by Gillian, with scientific accuracy in its natural habitat and immediate surroundings. Four pages of the book, with three A4 size paintings, describe how Gillian progressed her work to the final product.
The paintings and drawings are beautifully executed and the text contains a wealth of information including maps showing distribution of each species.
The Southern African Plectranthus and the art of turning shade to glade
Ernst van Jaarsveld
Illustrations by Vicki Thomas
Publishers Fernwood Press
Price R285
Vicki Thomas is a founder member and past Chairperson of BAASA. Several of her botanical works are in the Shirley Sherwood collection and she has published many scientific illustrations in botanical journals. Recently her work was selected for the Highgrove Florilegium of the Prince of Wales garden. She has gold medals from the RHS and Kirstenbosch Biennale art exhibitions. Vicki is a talented teacher and holds many courses for botanical artists in South Africa.
This book of Plectranthus is quite different from many of the books written by professional botanists, it is tuned as much to the keen gardener and plantsman as to the scientist - and then there are all Vicki’s stunning meticulous illustrations. Nearly one third of the book is dedicated to describing the discovery, distribution and naming of the plants, their cultivation and usage as a shade garden plant and their ecology. 55 known species are described by Ernst and illustrated by Vicki.
This is both a useful and aesthetically stunning book.
