Botanists produce book on orchids
Prof Steve Johnson and Dr Benny Bytebier have released a new book, entitled Orchids of South Africa – A Field Guide.
TWO UKZN botanists have released a new book, entitled Orchids of South Africa – A Field Guide.
Professor Steve Johnson and Dr Benny Bytebier, put together the book which is the first complete field guide to local orchids to be published in over 30 years, and covers the nearly 500 orchid species found in the region, including Lesotho and Swaziland.
Orchids of South Africa also showcases extraordinary photographs by the renowned Austrian photographer Herbert Stärker, who with his wife, Helga, has travelled through the region since 2006, driving some 370 000 kilometres to capture orchids in their natural habitat.
Johnson and Bytebier’s new book covers almost all local orchid species.
“The book has information on the more common to the extremely rare; from the less remarkable to the brazenly beautiful. It includes those that are most secretive and inaccessible – flowering ephemerally, or clinging to life in remnant habitat pockets,” said Bytebier.
Stärker’s treasure-trove of images has been teamed with the orchid expertise of Johnson and Bytebier, both noted specialists in the field.
Johnson, an NRF A-rated scientist, holds the South African Research Chair in Evolutionary Biology, is a leading international expert in the field of plant pollination biology, and is also a co-author of a previous book, The Cape Orchids.
Bytebier holds an NRF C rating and is curator of the Bews Herbarium (NU) based on the Pietermaritzburg campus. His research focuses on the systematics, biogeography and evolutionary history of African orchids.
As a field guide, Orchids of South Africa offers multiple photographs for each species, succinct text, enabling sure identification, calendar bars showing flowering seasons, as well as distribution maps and up-to-date science. An illustrated introduction discusses orchid structure, ecology and conservation status, and a comprehensive key to genera is included to reflect the latest taxonomy.
Informative, colourful and easy to use, Orchids of South Africa has been hailed as the product of rare and invaluable dedication – an essential guide for orchid enthusiasts everywhere. The book has 536 pages, was published by Struik Nature and will retail at R350.
