Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants: Identification and Cultivation of Over 3000 Tropical Plants Hardcover – July 21, 2011

I just received my copy of Fayaz's Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants and I am already delighted. There are thousands of wonderful photos of a breath-taking diversity of plants, many of which are unusual and rarely photographed. It is wonderful to see the photos of parasitic plants, water plants, succulents and so on (and of course, orchids, bromeliads and palms and other typical tropical plants). The book is organized along modern taxonomic lines; for example, chapters on Basal Angiosperms, Basal Monocots, Commelinoid Monocots, Basal Eudicots and so on, so it is easy to compare and contrast plants that are considered to be closely related under current systematic theory. I would guess that anyone interested in plants would love the photos even if they never read any of the abundant text; professional botanists will find the details int the text extremely valuable. I give this book my highest recommendation. By the way, I am a professor of botany at the University of Texas, and have seen many books on plants. This one is spectacular.

This book exceeds my expectations! The book is built on the systematics of APG II. So the families are not orders alphabetically but according to the evolutionary tree of plants. This grouping allows to discover the common traits that eg different families of an order share.Many generas are included, even some of the most important species. The described plants are backed up with pictures. Those are a little small, but due to the high information density of this book, is is acceptable. The book is very heavy (I estimate 3-4 kgs) so it makes my back bag pretty heavy on my travel a lot. But, this is it worth! I hope the day comes, where such books are available as PDF. :)You can use these book either as a reference work, but it is also useful for identifying plants. For this use a certain knowledge of the plant systematics is required.Fazit: It is really a great work!

I'm very impressed by the scope and dimension of this great anthology of all knowledge about tropical plants. There are photographs in at least 2 places in this book where labels mismatch the plants in description, however. The picture of Rondeletia odorata on p.581 is actually Clerodendrum calamitosum, and the picture of Cestrum aurantiacum on p.662 is actually taken from Brugmensia sanguinea on the previous page. If you are also a tropical plant lover but hesitate to buy because of the pricey tag of this book, I'd recommend you to wait until the next edition is printed.

There is a lot of plants in this book, and this book does have clear images. HOWEVER, the photos wouldn't have been enough, because most of the photos are just snapshots of a single plant part and not the whole plant. The descriptions are boring to read, plus a little confusing, to the point it gave me headaches.The general rule of thumb for me is: If it doesn't have great detailed pictures for all the plant parts, the book is not a good identification guide. It has been said many times: a picture is worth a thousand words.I would have rated this book higher if it had edibility information on every species. It only covers edibility on a few species. Me being a forager, I thought this was the go-to guide to help me learn to identify edible tropical plants, but I was wrong.I just hope the author comes out with another edition of this book. Then I would be a little bit happier...

Absolutely gorgeous book, but has no information on growing and caring for tropical plants. This is a technical book best suited for botanists and other technically minded tropical plant lovers. This is not a book for gardeners which is why I purchased it. It now just sits and is rarely looked at.

The most dissapointing feature of this book is the extremely small font used in the entire book.The Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants is a weighty reference book on tropical plants but the extremely small, fine font used to typeset the book makes it tiring to read this book for any length of time.

The book is filled with great photo's and scientifically desciptive. However it does seem to have little information on practical considerations for using or working with the plant material, such as propagation, sun/shade requirements, invasive or not or landscape uses. Jack

I am a professional garden designer and plantswoman and I expect great detailed info for plants... however... this book was tooooo deep into the botany end and not enough hort info...

A technical book as you have to know your plant families well. I don't, but nevertheless a very good book as the index helps as both Latin and vernacular names. Great photos and good descriptions. A good reference tool and a book for life if you are keen on your plants.

Lots of information, incredible pitchers, A must for plant lovers.

very good

This is an excellent book. Anybody really interested in tropical plants would find it invaluable

ho ordinato questo libro perché nuovo ed a buon prezzo. Arrivato quasi in anticipo, ad una prima e poco attenta analisi sembrava perfettamente nuovo ed integro. poi, sfogliandolo, ho notato che fra la pagina 34-35 la legatura era strappata.(in figura) Ho letto il regolamento di Amazon ed ho visto che, in caso di prodotto danneggiato, si sarebbe potuto rispedire il prodotto ad Amazon e chiedere di sostituirlo. E così ho fatto.Mi arriva una "presunta" nuova copia di questo prodotto, così COPIA che si è rivelato essere il libro originale con la legatura delle pagine 34-35 IDENTICA a quella del libro che gli avevo mandato. Non sto a rispedirlo che sennò diventa una partita a tennis o magari me ne arriva uno in condizioni peggiori. Però non posso dare un buon feedback.Consiglio: se io vi spedisco un prodotto che mi avete venduto DANNEGGIATO, perché non SOSTITUIRLO come dite fare? non potete rispedirmi quello originale, sperando magari che io non veda la legatura danneggiata, così mi sento preso in giro !