The weird and wonderful lifestyle of orchids, the most diverse and widespread of plant families.
The sheer number of known orchid species -- and their ability to interbreed and create ever more fantastical forms -- means that the variety is seemingly endless. Extraordinary Orchids is not about growing and caring for these orchids; it is about why orchids look and behave the way they do.
Sandra Knapp explains why orchids are unique and how their parts are shaped like no other flowering plants, and what purpose they serve. She describes their varied lifestyles and habitats: epiphytic orchids, ground-dwelling orchids, insect-mimicking orchids, and orchids whose existence is symbiotically tied to specific insects and birds.
She reveals the bizarre life-styles and interactions that botanists have uncovered amongst different categories of orchids, and why the shape-shifting forms of orchid flowers have acquired telltale common names, like the "man-orchids" or "monkeyorchids" which are so called because of their resemblance to the primate form.
The botany and beauty of orchids have granted them great appeal not only to collectors but also to artists. They lend themselves to depiction, and it is not surprising that botanical artworks of orchids have abounded for centuries. Extraordinary Orchids features stunning artworks in the finest traditional manner by the early leading botanical illustrators of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including Ferdinand and Franz Bauer, Sydney Parkinson, Arthur Harry Church, Henry Fletcher Hance and John Russell Reeves. There are also images taken from James Bateman's The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala.
Extraordinary Orchids is a superlative choice for botany, natural history and art collections.
About the Author: Sandra Knapp is Merit Researcher and Head of the Plants Division at the Natural History Museum in London and also President of the Linnean Society. She has spent many years collecting plants in tropical Central and South America. She is a particular expert on the plant family Solanaceae, which includes such economically important species as the potato and tomato, and is the author of several books including Flora; Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazon and The Gilded Canopy.
