The Orchids of Madagascar

John Skillcorn

Author: Du Puy, Cribb, Bosser and Hermans
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
ISBN: 1-900347-70-9
Price: £49

The Publisher says:
Madagascar has one of the richest and most exciting orchid floras in the world. The orchids, which number almost 1000 species, comprise almost 10% of the higher plants of Madagascar. A number of genera are unique to the island and endemism at the specific level is also remarkably high at about 85%. A number of Madagascar's orchids have featured in living orchid collections for over a century and are highly desirable for their beauty and strangeness. We are sure that others merit horticultural interest and deserve introduction.

It is almost sixty years since Henri Perrier de la Bathie (1939, 1941) published his monumental account of the Madagascan orchids for Humbert's Flore de Madagascar. Copies of his account are now rare. Our knowledge of Madagascar's remarkable flora has increased considerably in the intervening years, adding many new taxa and records to the flora and revising the taxonomy of many more. The Checklist summarises current knowledge of the orchid flora and brings its nomenclature up-to-date: 114 new taxa have been added, 62 new combinations made, and a number of new ones are included here. The Checklist is the work of a number of collaborators including David Du Puy and Phillip Cribb at Kew, Jean Bosser in Paris, and Johan and Clare Hermans of Enfield, London. We believe it is an essential tool to the better understanding of the rich orchid flora of this extraordinary island.

The Annotated Bibliography is the work of Johan and Clare Hermans who have searched through their own fine collection of Madagascan literature and those of the libraries at Kew, Paris, Tsimbazaza and elsewhere. The Bibliography is comprehensive and an essential source of data on orchid history, taxonomy, distributions, ecology, and cultivation.

The authors' hope that this work will stimulate renewed interest in all aspects of this unique orchid flora. David Du Puy is a taxonomist with broad interests in the Madagascan Flora. He has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for 15 years, the last few specialising in Madagascan plants. He lived in Madagascar for several years and has travelled widely in the island. Apart from his orchid research and setting up a conservation project on orchids with the Pare Tsimbazaza, Antananarivo, he is the author of The genus Cymbidium (1987) and the forthcoming Legumes of Madagascar, the first comprehensive account of that important family.

Phillip Cribb is Curator of the Orchid Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has travelled widely in search of orchids and is the author of many publications on them, including floristic accounts of the orchids of several tropical African regions. He has joined David Du Puy in Madagascar looking for orchids and is particularly interested in the terrestrial genera.

Jean Bosser is based at the Herbarium of the Laboratoire National de Phanerogamic in Paris. He was formerly Director of Research for ORSTOM in Madagascar and latterly a research scientist at the Museum in Paris. He has worked on Madagascan and Mascarene orchids for over forty years, and has undertaken many expeditions in Madagascar and the Mascarenes over that period. He is the author of numerous papers on Madagascan orchids and is currently preparing the orchid account for the Flore des Mascareignes.

Johan and Clare Hermans are Honorary Research Associates at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. They are keen orchid growers and have visited Madagascar many times over the past decade. Johan is a professional paper conservator working for the Museum of London. Clare is a general practitioner with a practice in North London. Both are members of the Orchid Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society.

My comments:
What else can I say about a book such as this?  The bibliography alone runs to 142 pages and includes 1,286 references.  These are expanded and include quite a lot of information in their own right.  There are 46 pages of coloured photographs (with all, as far as I can tell, taken in natural habitat) and, out of a total of 379 pages you might think this rather mean.  However, this is no coffee table book and is clearly aimed at the botanist.

Species are listed by scientific name and apart from the classification details there is specific information about distribution, habitat, altitude, flowering periods, growth form, general description and any illustrations available.

There are no notes on plant cultivation.

This is a beautiful, truly scientific work but don't buy it unless you're really into Madagascan Orchids in a big way!