Air Plants: Epiphytes and Aerial Gardens

Benzing's love for epiphytes is clearly evident, and the book provides an excellent introduction to the field.... By starting from first principles, it provides a tidy introduction to field botany to an undergraduate audience.... All the basic principles of botany are covered using epiphytes as model organisms.... The systematic overview of epiphyte diversity in particular provides an important, holistic grounding in epiphyte taxonomy, biogeography, and systematics.... There is something in it for everyone, from newcomers to plant biology to those who regularly climb trees to do their research. -- K. C. Burns * Ecology * David Benzing's exuberance is evident throughout this book. His love of epiphytes... captivates the reader.... Benzing’s is a well-conceived and well-executed testimony to epiphytes and serves to bring together up-to-date information about these not very well understood plants. It provides a basis for further inquiry to round out our understanding of this peculiar life style of plants and points out areas where further study would be productive. -- William Stern * Plant Science Bulletin * Modest in size, but not in content and scope, Benzing's pithy gem of a synthesis appears 22 years after his technical monograph, Vascular Epiphytes (1990).... Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- R. Schmid * Choice *