Orchidee d’Italia

This is the second edition of what remains perhaps the most wide ranging modern work on wild orchids in Italy, and is a testament to the efforts of members of GIROS – Gruppa Italiano per La Ricerca sulle Orchidee Sponatee – which translates into English as ‘The Italian Group for Research on Wild Orchids’. The text is in Italian, but most botanists, or by those with a reasonable knowledge of botanical terms, should find it not too difficult to navigate, making it quite useable for English readers.
Short introductory sections cover : Morphology, Biology , Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, Taxonomy, Conservation, Darwin and Orchids, Bio-geography and ecology, Genetic diversity. There is a general key to genera and colour tabs at the top of each page to facilitate location of each genus. There are also keys to some individual genera and species
Each species entry comes with at least one image and a distribution map showing the region(s) found. The text includes names and synonyms in Latin, habitat, description and added notes. Entries have usually been written by individuals with intimate knowledge of the species concerned, although the formatting is consistent throughout the book.
There is an index of Latin names, a glossary and a section at the rear with colour photos of inter-genus and inter-species hybrids.