Submitted by David on
Barbara Jeppe spent the most part of ten years criss-crossing much of the Western Cape and Namaqualand region every spring and winter to illustrate 420 species of bulbous plant. Painted with watercolours from living specimens, the illustrations in this coffee-table sized book are mostly bold and detailed with plants depicted at life size. The book itself contains text mainly by Graham Duncan including a brief description of each genus, cultivation and propagation advice and a brief treatise on pests and diseases. The species text includes Latin/Greek etymologies for each species, common names in Afrikaans and English, a brief description, habitat, flowering time and description of distribution. Rainfall varies from 50mm per annum in the Richtersveld, to over 2000mm in the Newlands area of Cape Town.
Due to many overlapping illustrations, much work has gone into repairing and recreating overlapped elements.
