The orchid hunter : a young botanist's search for happiness / Leif Bersweden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bersweden, Leif, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bersweden, Leif.

Orchids--Great Britain.

Orchids.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

363 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Short Books, 2017.

Summary:

He has just a few months to complete his quest - no one has ever done it before - and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, this is a charming, witty account of a precocious adolescent's obsession with the natural world. As he battles the vagaries of the British climate in his clapped-out car, feverishly chasing each emerging bloom, Leif Bersweden takes the reader on a remarkable botanical journey. This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids - one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on hilltops and riverbanks, in woodland, marsh and field.

Contents:

Introduction: A bee's eye view

Shakespeare's long purples

Stumped by Ireland's Mediterranean orchid

The loose flowers of Jersey

The lady of the woods and her hanged man

Orchids of the Emerald Isle

Swords of the Hampshire Hangers

The desirable category of very rare orchids

Butterflies and burnt tips

The lady's slipper

The curse of the coralroot

Finding the fragrants

Those little green ones

Mimic

Queen of the Cotswolds

Orchids of the Western Isles

Midsummer musk

Holy helleborines

Ghost hunting

August orchids

Spirals by the sea.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781780723341

1780723342

OCLC:

1049600476