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The aim of this book is first and foremost to serve as an eye-opener for the many thousands of annual visitors to the Botanical Garden of Seychelles. After your tour in the garden you might perhaps want to know a bit more of, what you have just seen and enjoyed among the many hundreds of different, exciting tropical plants of which 13 (14?) are endemics to Seychelles; 10 (13?) indigenous and 139 introduced. And of which 17 at present are threatened to various degree and another 15 ’under observation’ for same.
The book is therefore structured in a way, that should make it easy for you to browse through it looking for, what you might be interested in. Be however aware, that it would have been too comprehensive to include all registered 166 plants in a book like this, for which reason the author has tried to bind a striking and memorable bouquet of chosen 37, where 1) there next to is disposed a clear and visible nameplate and 2) which at the same time has ‘a story to tell’. (For a complete list of registered plants in the garden, please see the included Appendix at page 94).
Next to a short plant description highlighting good and easy field characters, and what you subsequently might recall in the chosen photo(s), Hansen has therefore included the ‘story’, each of them has to tell focussing on ethnobotanical information such as uses (food, craft work, construction etc), medicinal values, eventual religious affiliations, origin of names, country of origin if introduced, and level of global threat. And in respect of the latter Hansen has on page 88 included the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) codes and explanations.
