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A beautifully written and illustrated account of the threatened plant species that inhabit the British Isles.
Britain and Ireland are home to around 300 species of rare flowering plants, and many more rare ferns, mosses, liverworts and freshwater algae. These are species at the cutting edge of biodiversity: fascinating, often beautiful, and in decline. Yet as some teeter on the brink, more rare species are still being discovered.
In Rare Plants, prize-winning author Peter Marren describes the allure of Britain and Ireland's vanishing wild flora, from the simple joy of plant hunting to the wonder and (sometimes) weirdness of the plants themselves, as well as their important place in our landscape and culture. He also explores the condition of rarity in the context of our changing world and climate: why do plants become rare, what threats do they face, and what opportunities do we have to protect them before it is too late? Rare Plants concludes with an overview of different conservation techniques, using test cases such as Lady's Slipper Orchid and Starved Wood-sedge, and asks at what point careful management becomes gardening, and how far we are justified in intervening in the life of a wild species.
Illustrated with around 300 colour images by some of our best plant photographers, as well as boxed texts telling the fascinating stories of several key species, this is above all a celebration of rare plants and why they matter.
Preface
1. Modes of rarity
2. Discovery: how rare plants were found
3. The continuing story: new flowers
4. Origins: natives, archaeophytes and neophytes
5. Made in Britain: our endemic flora
6. Micro-rarities: how a few can make a lot
7. Across the divide: the world of hybrids
8. The end game: lost flowers
9. The other world: bryophytes, stoneworts, seaweeds and desmids
10. Plants and people: subjects, symbols and icons
11. The condition of rarity: problems, opportunities and imaginings
12. Lost slippers and other floral icons: challenges, champions and chickenwire
13. The conservation labyrinth: legislation, argument and action
Appendix 1. Protected plants in the United Kingdom
Appendix 2. Protected plants in Ireland
References and further reading
Illustration credits
Acknowledgements
Index
Peter Marren is a natural history writer and conservationist. He is a wildlife polymath whose writings extend from newspaper journalism, obituaries, book reviews and opinion pieces to humour and news summaries for the likes of Whitaker's Almanack. He was a regular contributor to British Wildlife magazine for 33 years and is the author of more than 20 books, including Bugs Britannica, Chasing the Ghost, After They're Gone, and Mushrooms – the first title in the British Wildlife Collection series.
