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Hamlyn Guide - Wildflowers
A comprehensive and easily understood reference book to the colourful world of wild flowers. But this is a reference book with a difference; the book itself has been divided into colour sections relating to the basic colour of the flowers, in order to enable both the serious student and the chance observer on a country walk to identify at a glance any flower very quickly. Moreover, not only are the flowers colour-coded, but they are then further divided into categories of flower shape, structure and habitat and each species is then fully described in detail, and beautifully and accurately illustrated in colour.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Dietmar Aichele
28 booksBorn: 1928
Died: 1996
He wrote over 20 books on botany including co authoring with Dr Schegler the five volume Encyclopedia of Flowers of Central Europe.
Died: 1996
He wrote over 20 books on botany including co authoring with Dr Schegler the five volume Encyclopedia of Flowers of Central Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 7, 2017
A superb handy reference book to wild flowers.
The first part is a 12 page section of line drawings, showing the most common shapes of leaves, flowers, fruits, roots and the parts of each. This is followed by a double spread synopsis showing how to use the book. Basically the reader needs to know the flower colour, type of location, whether it is symmetrical and how many petals it has.
What makes this book so startlingly easy to use is that it is organised in sections by colour, to such an extent that the edges of the pages form a rainbow sequence of white, yellow, red, blue, purple, green and brown. For anyone who has tried in vain to identify a tiny yellow flower in a huge book this is an enormous advantage, and may be unique. In addition to this, the illustrations are clear watercolours, making the relevant plant very easy to identify. Colour photographs may be beautiful, but for reference this pictorial technique is far better.
This version of the book was originally published in 1973, although it is based on 25 years of work leading to an earlier book by three German botanists. The author of this revision, Dietmar Aichele, has therefore mostly compiled this book from work by the amateur Alois Koch. The illustrations which are such an indispensable part of the work are by Marianne Golte-Bechtle.
A midsize chunky book, this contains a vast amount of technical knowledge, and probably would be the only book an amateur botanist would ever need for identification purposes. I remember my Mum would come back to this book time and time again, and when the internet fails me, I do the same.
The first part is a 12 page section of line drawings, showing the most common shapes of leaves, flowers, fruits, roots and the parts of each. This is followed by a double spread synopsis showing how to use the book. Basically the reader needs to know the flower colour, type of location, whether it is symmetrical and how many petals it has.
What makes this book so startlingly easy to use is that it is organised in sections by colour, to such an extent that the edges of the pages form a rainbow sequence of white, yellow, red, blue, purple, green and brown. For anyone who has tried in vain to identify a tiny yellow flower in a huge book this is an enormous advantage, and may be unique. In addition to this, the illustrations are clear watercolours, making the relevant plant very easy to identify. Colour photographs may be beautiful, but for reference this pictorial technique is far better.
This version of the book was originally published in 1973, although it is based on 25 years of work leading to an earlier book by three German botanists. The author of this revision, Dietmar Aichele, has therefore mostly compiled this book from work by the amateur Alois Koch. The illustrations which are such an indispensable part of the work are by Marianne Golte-Bechtle.
A midsize chunky book, this contains a vast amount of technical knowledge, and probably would be the only book an amateur botanist would ever need for identification purposes. I remember my Mum would come back to this book time and time again, and when the internet fails me, I do the same.
August 22, 2023
A perfect guide for identifying wildflowers on walks and such.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews