Product Description

This book is an excellent blend of information for serious orchid growers as well as orchid enthusiasts who may have plants of Philippine origin in their collections. It documents both the popular, well-known species and those of botanical interest in a format designed to aid in identifying species found in collections. Descriptions are accompanied by more than 300 color photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1681386 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 232 pages

Amazon.com Review
Jim Cootes knows orchids so well that two species have been named after him. The author notes in his stunning Orchids of the Philippines reveal that he has even found a pure white flower, rare as a snow leopard: "An albino form of Dendrobium fairchildiae." This volume consists of an exhaustive and hypnotic listing of over 300 species of orchids--plants native to the archipelago, which have been discovered and classified by Cootes and others over decades of research.

Each entry includes a vivid color photograph and a series of subcategories, including growth habits, petals, habitat, and distribution. The roots of botanical names are traced for descriptive meanings. Occasional notes allow the author's voice into the proceedings, and the prose is often inadvertently poetic, as in this description of the habitat of the Bulbophyllum antenniferum: "It normally grows as an epiphyte, usually on the trunks of trees, but has been observed by the author growing on rocks in dappled light." Orchid enthusiasts beware: most of the plants shown here can only be grown in greenhouses. --Emily White

Customer Reviews

the more i know, the more i appreciate and admire
"The Orchids of the Philippines" is one of a few books on indigenous Philippine orchids currently available. The more comprehensive ones are hard-to-find and very expensive. This book is priced just right. It contains morphological, cultural and geographical info on famous Philippine orchids and their lesser known relatives.

I am not a botanist so I cannot claim that this book covers the latest-and-greatest Philippine orchid genera and/or species. I am, however, a great lover of our own native orchids and I know about the more common and popular ones. This book, written by a non-Filipino, about Philippine orchids, continues to educate me, a Filipino. The more I know about our own native orchids, the more I appreciate and admire their beauty, diversity, and rarity!

Curiously, the word "orchid" has no direct Tagalog translation.