No comments about Orchid Names and Their Meanings.

No comments about 300 Orchids: Species, Hybrids and Varieties in Cultivation.

No comments about Orchid Growing Illustrated.

2 comments about Vandas and Ascocendas and Their Combinations with Other Genera.

1. This is a great book on the Vanda alliance. It has many wonderful pictures of both species and hybrids. It even includes a bunch of botanical prints (artistical renditions) of a number of species. This book is great for the hobbiest or breeder. Many pages go into detail about the history of breeding Vandas, and what qualities certain species impart. I have used this section a number of times when creating new hybrids. I have also used to book to identify an unkown Vanda, what a relief!



2. This book offers a concise description of all vandaceous orchids, with wonderful pictures, descriptions and differences between each genera. I am a grower of over thiry years, and have not realized that there were so many. I find this book to be more friendly to the average orchidist and if I could would give it a "10". This is truly the best on the market today.

1 comments about Tropical Orchids: Of Southeast Asia (Periplus Nature Guides).

1. Tropical Orchids of Southeast Asia is an outstanding little book regardless of the level of expertise of the reader. It's strongest point has to be the 133 sharp, clean, color-saturated photographs of orchids in 17 genera, some of which are rarely, if ever, seen in other books. The text is brief, but packed with information about habit and habitat, which is so valuable to a grower. A three-page introduction encapsulates the basics of these intriguing plants, and a map on the back cover shows the area covered in the book.

   I rate this one four stars instead of five simply because I wanted more! Its 64 pages just weren't enough for me.

   This is one you want to own.

4 comments about Phalaenopsis: A Monograph.

1. This book is invaluable for several reasons but most easily summed up with the statement that "it's all here". Dr. Christenson is first and foremost a taxonomist, but unlike so many other scientists, he is willing to share his reasons for placing a particular plant in a particular taxon. Every species is discussed thoroughly, and in another rare move, almost all the points of information are the same for each species so that they can be compared with an "apples to apples" approach. All measurements are metric. The keys actually work. Even the photos are in alphabetical order. What is also wonderful is that there is cultivation and conservation information sprinkled throughout the book, not just in those chapters. His horticultural expertise, his conservation ethic, and his sense of humor makes this very readable cover to cover. This book will also be used. If his Encyclopedia of Orchid Species, which should be completed next year, is anywhere near as good, it will be the most important orchid book ever.



2. Eric Christenson's book is outstanding, unrival on phalaenopsis taxonomy and most welcome. There you will learn that Phalaenopsis amabilis var. formosa should be known as Phal. aphrodite var. formosana. Surprisingly the text doesn't mention var. formosana is fragant.

   The photos are a big disappointment to say the least, not only they are alphabetically arranged and doesn't allow comparation among sister species, but most are poorly done for modern standards. In a work such this, it's incredible there are so few close-ups of the lips. What's worse, just one photo features a plant growing in the wild. Even Comber's book "Orchids of Java" gives more clue-photos of phalaenopsis growing in the wild than Eric's book.

   The Content page mentions chapters on cultivation, fertilisation hibridisation, etc. DO NOT BUY IT for that! Browse Internet, "Orchids" magazine or any other orchid paper and you will find better information on that subjects than in Eric's book. Taking in mind this book has been sponsored by the International Phalaenopsis Association, it's a disappointment to read such poor written chapters.

   Eric Christenson's book is a must have for any phalaenopsis lover with interest on taxonomy. Buy it just for that, but don't expect anything else. Anyhow, this is not the outstanding book it should have been.




3. The book contains about 323 pages composed of: 11 pages on history and distribution, 13 pages on orchid anatomy and basic taxonomy, 219 pages on each species, 21 pages on cultivation and growing, 15 pages on hybrids, 7 pages on conservation and the future, 27 page bibliography, and a 10 page index. 54 pages of color photographs (most pictures are small measuring only 2" x 3" in size).

   Eric Christenson is a plant genius, an outstanding writer, and perhaps the most important orchid authority in North America. Sadly, this is not a well written book.

   The text is boring. The descriptions are flat and uninteresting. Photographs are blurry and display unattractive flowers. Content is poorly organized. For example, photographs do not accompany the text description. Photographs are rather all lumped together in the center of the book. There are no maps. I have no clue where Borneo is and a map would be extremely helpful. In addition, I would have liked to have seen distribution maps for each species. Also, I would like to see comparative displays of the plant anatomy, rather than a drawing here and a drawing there. Was I suppose to flip through the pages to compare how species "A" differs from species "B"? Couldn't a visual taxonomic key have been written?

   The book has major flaws. Still, I gave it a 4-star rating. Why? Because the remaining material is so critically important. There is an outstanding wealth of information about Phalaenopsis in the book. It contains historical reflection and modern observations. Major taxonomic changes are introduced and discussed. Much of the data is new and has not been observed before, at least not in this amount of detail. It contains excellent plant sketches and voluminous descriptions about plant anatomy. Unfortunately, it is cluttered with enough scientific terminology to make it worthly of a fine dust collector on your book shelf.

   I am hugely disappointed with the book. It has so much important information that I will not likely reference because it too damn difficult to find in this book. For example, which Phalaenopsis have a fragrance? These details are in the book somewhere, but I would have to look up every species, one at a time, in order to obtain this answer.

   Great information. Poorly written and awkwardly organized. If you love Phalaenopsis, this is a must have book. Just accept the flaws and use it the best you can.




4. This book is a tour de force. The knowledge poured into the pages of this book is amazing. The meat of the book is organized such that each subgenus of Phalaenopsis is covered by a chapter. Each chapter begins with a flow chart for distinguishing members of the subgenus by key features such as sepal size and spur prominance. Each species and it's other forms are then described in detail with regards to anatomy, phylogeny, distribution, general facts, and occasionally tips for cultivation. This book serves as a great reference. The index was well thought out and all of the species are ordered alphabetically under the index entry "Phalaenopsis". In the middle of the book are several pages of color images on gloss paper with the species organized alphabetically. The book recently helped me correctly identify a Phal. that was incorrectly labelled by a vendor. For many species, Christenson notes when other species have been confused for it. When used in combination with Fragrant Orchids by Frowine, it becomes easy to search for fragrant Phals.

No comments about Orchids of Kenya.

5 comments about The Wild Orchids of North America, North of Mexico.

1. I have been awaiting the publication of this book for several months after I discovered it was forthcoming. If you are looking for a checklist of wild orchids with sharp color pictures then this is for you. For myself it lacked detailed information of the various orchids. This is likely not possible or the book would be too large to easily carry with you into the field. My suggestion is find an orchid book for your region that can concentrate on the local varieties. In my area of the Midwest, I would suggest "Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region" by Frederick W. Case, Jr. That book is an older book but contains some very useful information.



2. The book serves as good checklist for the North American species. It should not be construed as anything more than that. The photos are subpar.



3. Informatively written by Paul Martin Brown (Research Associate, University of Florida Herbarium, Florida Museum of Natural History), The Wild Orchids Of North America, North Of Mexico is a comprehensive field guide filled from cover to cover with full-color photographs. Each photograph of a different wild orchid species is accompanied by a simple line drawing by botanic illustrator Stan Folsom which brings out the appearance of the plant and enhances the basic species information. A beautiful checklist resource for flower and nature lovers, and a seminal addition to any dedicated horticultural and/or gardening reference collection, The Wild Orchids Of North America, North Of Mexico is also available in a hardcover edition (0813025710).



4. When a new field guide appears that is focused on a special group of plants, one anticipates that a lot of information will be presented about the subject of interest. Well-written field guides should contain at least a short paragraph discussing the details of the life histories, morphology, ranges, etc., of the creatures contained within. Range maps and proper illustrations are appropriate as well. This book does a minimal job of all of this. Although the photographs are nice, they are too small to glean all of the necessary details and some look altered by computer effects or printer error. Furthermore, the pen-and-ink drawings are awful, if at least in the sense of being useful for identifying the plants. The information provided in the text with each species is surprisingly limited, not revealing enough on the form, biology and geographic range of these plants. This lack of necessary detail can actually be misleading to the reader in their undrestanding of the species. This lack of detail also makes the book far less interesting than it could have been otherwise. The large taxonomic key in the back of the book is useful, but keys can not provide the user with a good mental image of the physical form of the plants, rather only of a very limited number of features, in contrast to what a proper textual description can provide. Furthermore, this book skips on some other necessary details, such as an incomplete bibliography, not listing all the references cited in the text, for example. The original sources for a book are important avenues for readers to learn more, therefore they should all be properly listed. The point of a field guide is to educate; if enthusiastic readers are unable to find necessary information due to the general lack of attention to detail in many, let alone most aspects of a guide, then that can not leave them confident that they have learned much of anything new, let alone be confident that they can identify the species properly.

   I had high hopes for this book when I first heard of its printing, but unfortunately I find it to be one of the more disappointing field guides I have seen, for orchids or any subject. It is not a adequate substitute for old, classic orchid guides, such as Donovan Correll's book of similar title (Native Orchids of North America North of Mexico) and Carlyle Luer's book on the same topic (The native orchids of the United States and Canada, excluding Florida), or even books of half of that amount of content. Sadly, these two classic books are out of print and rare. Probably the best approach for the curious native orchidist is to purchase a set of state and regional orchid field guides that are loaded with interesting information, such as those by Case (western Great Lakes), Coleman (Arizona and the SW), Homoya (Indiana), Liggio (Texas), Smith (Minnesota) and others. The substance revealed about the lives of the orchids within these books is more than enough to allow the reader of several of these to put together the pieces of the wonderful puzzle of these very interesting plants. It would be quite useful to have a new book that integrates such information at the necessary and appropriate level for all of the North American orchid species, but "Wild Orchids of North America, North of Mexico" by Brown & Folsom is definitely not that book, although I had hoped that it would be. I am very disappointed and feel that it is not a worthwhile purchase.




5. My summary:
   Easy to page though in an hour or two. There is a real photo of each orchid listed in this book. I am not a botanist or a taxonomist -- I don't want a textbook or 900 page field guide.

   This is mainly a picture book to give you a name for an orchid you find out by a trail or in your back yard.

   It has cross-reference listings of common and botanical names -- helpful for google searching or if you think it might be one of a few orchids listed.

   The photos are good, but the drawings in this manual lack the detail to know what the plant is really supposed to look like. You really cannot tell leaf shape, plant shape, size, etc from the drawings.

4 comments about The Orchid in Lore and Legend.

1. This book delves into the history of orchids and their rise in popularity. Some of the topics covered include the culinary uses of orchids, orchids in literature and orchid lore involving religion.

   There are several chapters covering historical aspects of several of the most popular orchid families. The final chapter gives a brief rundown of orchid culture today.

   My favorites in this book are any of the marvelous line drawings of orchid plants and flowers. There are also several color plates included.

   I'd highly recommend this to anyone interested in orchid lore and legends.




2. Luigi Berliocchi Timber Press 1996 ISBN 0-88192-491-1 184 pages

   I read this booknot because I was interested in orchids but because I'm fascinated by the lore and legends of plants. It was so beautifully written and so informative that I became interested in orchids.

   I had always felt that orchids were somehow a bit "over the top". I had no idea just how "over the top" they were. By the tie I read the chapter on myths and legends I was hooked, and when I finished "Patrons and Hunters" I couldn't put the book down. Just as well because I would have missed the story about vanilla being part of the Aztecs chocolate drink, and, of course, thought to be an aphrodisiac. Montezuma was said to drink it fifty times a day, especially before visiting one of his many wives.

   The book also covers the literature and art of the orchid and the magic, medicine and religion related to it. There are also chapters on the plant, the genera and on growing orchids and a list of information and illustration sources. There are some colour photographs and, throughout the text, delicate engravings from a wide range of historical sources.

   This is a very literate book. Not a long book - the writer does not belabour any of his points, but an interesting and thought-provoking read. If you are interested in orchids or fascinated by the history and legends of plants, this is a must read.




3. I read this book not because I was interested in orchids but because I'm fascinated by the lore and legends of plants. It was so beautifully written and so informative that I became interested in orchids.

   I had always felt that orchids were somehow a bit "over the top". I had no idea just how "over the top" they were. By the tie I read the chapter on myths and legends I was hooked, and when I finished "Patrons and Hunters" I couldn't put the book down. Just as well because I would have missed the story about vanilla being part of the Aztecs chocolate drink, and, of course, thought to be an aphrodisiac. Montezuma was said to drink it fifty times a day, especially before visiting one of his many wives.

   The book also covers the literature and art of the orchid and the magic, medicine and religion related to it. There are also chapters on the plant, the genera and on growing orchids and a list of information and illustration sources. There are some colour photographs and, throughout the text, delicate engravings from a wide range of historical sources.

   This is a very literate book. Not a long book - the writer does not belabour any of his points, but an interesting and thought-provoking read. If you are interested in orchids or fascinated by the history and legends of plants, this is a must read.




4. This book is filled with historical content, I could not stop reading because the book is so interesting. I was intrigued to find out that Charles Darwin was obssesed with orchids, they don`t tell you that in history class, or that he came up with his theory of evolution when he was traveling the world on a ship called the H.M.S, looking for new species of orchids and other exotic plants.

1 comments about Orchids.

1. The pictures in this book about orchids are stunning. The text is informative and thorough. Every orchid lover will appreciate this book and proudly display it on the coffee table. I've seen a lot of books about orchids, and this has to rank among the best. Pick it up before it's too late!