Monday 21 May 2018

Plantopedia: Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth by Adrienne Barman (Wide Eyed Editions)

We do love superb quality non-fiction titles, and we're pleased to see an accompaniment to Wide Eyed's fabulous "Creaturepedia"...
This time though it's the turn of flora in "Plantopedia" - a plant-fuelled celebration of Nature's greatest show'-offs.

Plants come in all shapes and sizes, and we love to kid ourselves that we're fairly clued up on plant species when we go out on our nature walks (well, we can tell the difference between an Oak Tree and a Horse Chestnut tree, so it's definitely a start.

With plenty of cameo appearances from "Creaturepedia" the plants are the stars though and you will find all manner of colours, all kinds of shapes, plants that taste great, plants that can kill you if you so much as take a tiny nibble, plants that even catch their own food on the fly!

So let's dig in and take a proper look at those glorious page spreads within...

Who knew there were so many 'black' plants eh? Wowsers!
Just as in "Creaturepedia" the classifications here aren't your usual dry latin names, or family groupings, but plants are gathered together sometimes by colour, sometimes by purpose and sometimes by their unique scent or flavour.

Citrus anyone?

Yum! Anyone fancy a Yuzu smoothie? No?
The illustrations may be fairly cartoony but they're still brilliant and beautiful in most cases, and it's actually great to see a plant book that isn't just a dry school-book type deal.

Attenborough's Pitcher Plant. Stay away if you're a fly!
An amazing fact-filled and fun book this.

"Plantopedia" by Adrienne Barman is out now, published by Wide Eyed Editions (kindly supplied for review)