Product Description

At long last, here is a complete and exhaustive account of the genus Dendrobium. Among the most prized and popularly cultivated orchids, dendrobiums delight gardeners and orchid lovers alike with the sheer beauty of their delicate flowers and slender form. Now, those interested in learning all there is to know about this enchanting genus have the book they have always wanted. With descriptions of the approximately 450 species in the genus, including habits and flowering biology, a guide to species identification and culture, a historical review of the genus, a survey of Dendrobium evolution and distribution, more than 600 color photos, and a bibliography with over 1000 entries, this is the ultimate resource on the genus.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #664646 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 996 pages

From the Publisher
This exhaustive account includes descriptions of the approximately 450 species in the genus including habits and flowering biology, a bibliography with over 1000 entries, and more than 600 color photos of this beloved and popular orchid.

About the Author
Howard Wood is a research associate in the botanical department of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He has spent more than 25 years growing dendrobiums, observing them, and researching all aspects of the plants. He has published more than 20 scholarly articles on orchids, which are a lifelong passion. In previous years, his personal garden contained more than 100 genera and 1500 kinds of orchids. He has grown more than 350 species of Dendrobium in his own garden, and has traveled to the far reaches of the globe to seek them out in their natural habitats. Prior to his work in botanical research, he was a psychiatrist for nearly 50 years in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Killed too many trees to print this book!
The book is about three inches thick! Why? Because the type are way too big. You can read the text three feet away. If this book were to be lay-out in half the font size as in a typical book. This book would have been about an inch thick or less. It is way too pricey and not enough photos, amateurishly illustrations. Leave the trees where they are so the Dendrobiums can grow-on.

Award
For this book Howard Wood, has been awarded the Engler Silver Medal for 2006 for a work in systematics, given by the Inernational Association for Plant Taxonomy, publisher of the journal Taxon.

Anne C. Wood

Both Too Much and Too Little
Howard Wood's The Dendrobiums is a massive volume, numbering xxiii+ 847 pp. + 117 pp of photographs - approximately 1000 pp. at the hefty retail price of $150 USD. This volume covers quite a range of topics and certainly is the most comprehensive available volume on the tribe Dendrobieae. Unfortunately, I do not think the volume to be worth the price, even at the substantial discounts at which it is presently available. In brief, the numerous typographic (including type setting) errors are very distracting and speak for a need for a careful and thorough edit. More importantly, I found this volume to be based too frequently on personal opinion and conjecture, without adequate development of his opinions and conclusions. For example, the author says he is not trying to make taxonomic changes, while in places he makes them, usually with little explanation. The sections on numerical taxonomy and DNA analysis are particularly incomplete, leaning heavily upon Yukawa's research, and in general the writing on the evolution and ecology of the tribe is not very insightful. Figures appear without adequate captions or explanation. The sections on plant and flower anatomy and the regional/country floras are useful, and the regional floras are available nowhere else except in a comprehensive university or museum library. Citations and references are fully given in the extensive bibliography. The photographs are mostly from Wood's own collection, as are the cultural notes. For the amateur grower, the cultural notes are likely to be less than helpful, since by Wood's own admission they are based upon his experience only - and all rather discouraging, since he found so many species to be unsustainable in cultivation. In brief, the major flaw of this volume is its comprehensiveness. There is something for everyone, but not enough detail to satisfy virtually anyone. Wood's work is a step in the right direction, but given his note concerning how much work is needed, points to how far we have to go to get something better. On balance, as a grower I found the photos of species not to be found anywhere else to be the most useful element in this volume; as a scientist, I found the citations and references to be most useful. However, the combination as it is represented in this book is not very satisfactory. I find the two volumes by Baker and Baker and Lavarack et al., combined with Jay Pfahl's species encyclopedia on the internet, to constitute a more useful set of resources for this subject than The Dendrobiums.