African Wildlife & Environment Issue 82

GOOD READS

Paging through the book, one finds various gems that add an extra dimension to your understanding of this amazing group of plants. For example, on the pages titled ‘What’s in a genus name’ we learn that Amaryllis was a beautiful Roman shepherdess, mentioned in the classical mythology of Ovid,Theocritus and Virgil. Brunsvigia is the Latinised name in tribute to German aristocrat Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1735-1806). Several short introductory chapters set out the background to the Amaryllis family, including ‘Conservation’, ‘Biogeography’ , ‘Survival strategies’ and ‘How to use this book’. The field guide is divided into ten vegetation biome chapters (plus another for ‘widespread’). Biome maps are provided for each species to enable the readers to roughly position themselves within the biome in which an amaryllid is seen. Each chapter provides an introduction to the biome, with the relevant biome map. A species or subspecies is placed in the biome in which it most frequently occurs, and thus is mostly likely to be seen; wherever it is present in more than one biome, these are referred to beneath each species or subspecies distribution map. In each chapter, similar species or subspecies are placed adjacent to one another to allow for easy comparison and identification. Where possible, each of the 265 species or subspecies descriptions is accompanied by a habitat image, photographs of the flowers and leaves and sometimes fruits or seeds, and a distribution map. Common names (where applicable) are given in a variety of South African languages. Thereafter a summarised description is given of traits, flowering period, distribution, habitat and life cycle. Where known, pollinators, medicinal uses and poisonous properties are given, as well as notes on conservation status and cultivation. Sadly, the Amaryllis family is under conservation pressure, and in his Foreword John Rourke, Past President of the Botanical Society of South Africa, pulls no punches. “Today, the natural world is under siege. Nothing characterises the state of change in the earth’s terrestrial ecosystems so much as the two dark forces of uncontrolled population growth and exponential habitat destruction, with all their ruinous peripheral effects.”

Clivia miniata (Photograph: John Wesson)

photographers whose work forms the glorious, colourful substance of the book. Pages 3 and 4 are dedicated to an appreciation of their work- all are named and there are eight thumbnail images of photographers in the field, in various awkward positions while grabbing their shots. The images of plants in the field are especially valuable, because one can see their natural habitats and surroundings. Although numerous species of the Amaryllis family are grown in gardens and plant collections, and images of their flowers can be taken there, they lack the authenticity of the real thing in the wild. Some of the images are simply breathtaking: on pages 64 and the spread on 66-67, the gorgeous pink flowerheads of Brunsvigia bosmaniae cover a wide area of otherwise barren ground near Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape; on the spread across pages 358-359 we see a barren, bone-dry pan near Maltahöhe, Namibia. On the following spread is the pan after the rains, covered in a dense carpet of flowering Crinum paludosum. Astonishing images are the order of the day in this book, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the photographer had to be in the right place at the right time to record the brief flowering period in the plants’ lifestyles.

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