Plant: Exploring the Botanical World

My Christmas gift to myself is this glorious compilation of botanical art, all 350 pages of brilliant renderings of the plants of the world. I judged this book by its cover, it was so beautiful I wanted it for the art piece alone. The idea to pull together the oldest of illustrations of plant life to the newest technology renderings from artists, photographers, illustrators and scientists all in one volume was bold. The enormity of the work to select and arrange these is inspiring.The introduction by Dr. James Compton, Botanist and plant collector, narrates the world wide historical contribution of botanical artistry which benefits all of us today.Paging on into the heart of the book I find a detailed illustration of a tree stump and its roots alongside a digital light micrograph of a pine branch. The placement of a gauche watercolor of a lily with an X-ray rendition of same is a mind expanding visual experience. This feast for the eyes would be enough but the details of what you are seeing is accompanied by a fascinating and relatable description. Each artist is identified (except for the anonymous works) describing their contribution to the knowledge of plants we all benefit from today.Just when I thought it couldn’t be more wonderful I come to the 10 page, 4 column botanical art timeline. Here I walk through the horticultural history documenting the knowledge of plants. I love this book, I have always loved botanical art and now with this in my hands I have the world’s best.

This time features hundreds of sketches, photographs and paintings of plants, seeds and flowers. The art is randomly displayed in no particular order, so you will not know what the next page holds. There are a few features of the book that I appreciate but did not expect: a glossary; a timeline of the art; biographies of the artists; and a comprehensive index. I love poring over each page!

I bought the book for the cover. I wanted to see the art behind the leaves. So far, I have found art history, nature, culturally defined beauty, and inspiration. Lots of details to take in. Wonderful and potentially mesmerizing book of nature presented in art.

Love this resource book.

Really good book for learning about the botanical world. I probably understood incorrectly, I thought It’ll have more information about the flowers and plants, rather the artist behind each drawing. But that the only con I have

So beautiful , the coffee table book people actually read , they may get so absorbed you have to put it away to get some actual “facetime”

Very sharp and breathtaking photographs of plants. The photos are taken up close.

Gorgeous book with excellent reproductions of a vast number of botanical artworks with well-written summaries of each piece under each color reproduction. Artworks include old and new, drawing, painting, watercolor, engraving and sculpture as well as radiologic and scanning microscopy images. A wonderful volume.