First published in 2010, this new edition has been updated and revised.
Conifers are evergreen trees or shrubs that feature prominently in gardens and parks as well as in many managed forests in the cool to cold temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Numerous books have been written about them and continue to appear, mostly with a bias towards their uses in Europe and North America. A Handbook of the World’s Conifers departs from this traditional approach in that it includes all the world’s 615 species of conifers, of which some 200 occur in the tropics. It gives as much information about these and the Southern Hemisphere conifers as about the better known species, drawing on research by the author over nearly 35 years into the taxonomy, biology, ecology, distribution and uses . The result is a truly encyclopedic work, richly illustrated by the author with his excellent line drawings as well as photographs of species in their natural habitat.
About the Author
Aljos Farjon, FLS is a botanist who studied the taxonomy and ecology of conifers at the University of Utrecht, Oxford University and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he is currently (after retirement) Honorary Research Associate. He has published 11 books and 55 scientific papers on conifers since 1984.