Growing Carnivorous Plants [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

This book is special. I'm familiar with most of the books on carnivorous plants (see my Listmania list; there are PLENTY of great ones), but this new one blew my mind. This is the rare book that can captivate (perhaps the wrong word in this context) readers of all ages and all levels of expertise. Imagine that your favorite National Geographic article has been expanded into a first-rate book, complete with phenomenal pictures, engaging science writing, environmental awareness, humor, and a sense of adventure. Rice's book explores the habitat, science, history, popular culture and mass murder that make Carnivorous plants so fascinating.

Some things to note:

1) AUTHOR WEBSITE. There's a fair amount of information about this book at the author's remarkable Sarracenia website. All I can say is that I was familiar with the site, but the book still astonished me. The website includes brief descriptions of the 22 chapters. Moreover, the website itself has beautiful photographs, and discusses a wide variety of topics that Rice did not include in the book. It will address any errors or omissions, apparently. So the website is a must-see. Don't miss the Galleria Carnivora, even if you have to fake your credentials to get to the good stuff.

2) AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS. The photos are to die for! (...perhaps the wrong phrase in this context). These aren't JUST pictures of amazing plants. These are works of art and fantasy; nature photography at its dramatic, vicarious best. The peristomes of various pitcher plants feel as sinister as shark jaws; the Darlingtonia californica (cobra lilly) really looks like an alien invader in one picture; the "fangs" of one Nepenthes pitcher indeed look ominous; a close-up of a hair on a Dionaea muscipula (Venus flytrap) really looks like a trigger to a trap door. (You can get some sense of the author's remarkable photographic abilities at his website). I should add that the publishers got the color right. I'm thanking my lucky stars that I have normal red-green color vision because the book is full of vivid reds and greens.

3) AUTHOR CREDENTIALS / HUMOR. The author is obsessed with carnivorous plants AND he's is very funny. In the past (not in this book) he fed parts of his diseased foot to a plant and documented it. His discussion of actually doing this was not as glamorous as it sounds, but it was funny. Although the humor in the book is usually subtle, there are clever puns, figure captions, and amusing stories. I should add that Rice edits the Carnivorous Plant Newsletter, which is the newsletter of the International Carnivorous Plant Society. I haven't seen a copy of the newsletter in awhile, but it was amusing in places when I used to subscribe. It had great pictures and lots of information.

4) SCIENCE; EVOLUTION, MOLECULAR GENETICS. The book has sections that discuss evolution. That's good news. Apparently the author felt the need to negotiate for enough freedom to cover evolution and Darwin in a sensible way. In this era of genetic tests, there is new evidence to allow us to discuss common ancestors, etc. There was some coverage of plant genetics and I wish there was more. The author acknowledges that the fossil record is limited, but provides some discussion of ancestral links, including a photo of a possible ancestor of Sarracenia. There are some other academic sources that go deeper into evolutionary ideas about CPs, and about shared molecular genetics. The book might serve as a gateway to academic journal articles on CP evolution and genetics if one consults the citation index for the book (available online only).

5) ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. The book discusses conservation throughout, and it seems clear that the habitats for many plants are shrinking. The last chapter is devoted to the topic. It provides facts, but is also a passionate plea to save CPs (and life as we know it). It is a very readable chapter, and it helps CP enthusiasts see the bigger picture. Rice is the ICPS's Director of Conservation Programs (which I'm sure pays millions), and he works for The Nature Conservancy. He knows his stuff.

6) OTHER GREAT BOOKS ON CPs. The author has not attempted to write a "complete" or "comprehensive" book on CPs. Rather, he has focused on topics that are of most interest to him. Fortunately, he has plenty to offer. However, there is plenty of additional information for the layperson and expert alike. if you are interested finding other books on carnivorous plants, take a look at the list of sources I have posted under Listmania. There are excellent books to consider that have been authored by Gordon Cheers, Peter D'Amato, Charles Darwin (!), Rica Erickson, Barry Juniper et al., Patricia Kite, Francis Lloyd (1940's), Allen Lowrie, Charles Nelson, Nick Romanowski, Donald Schnell, Adrian Slack, Dorothy Souza, and others. Much depends on your interests and level of knowledge. Another good source for book information is D'Amato's California Carnivores website.

7) GROWING CPs. If you are interested in GROWING carnivorous plants, then consider D'Amato's "The Savage Garden." D'Amato has the world's largest collection of carnivorous plants, and he's written a GREAT book on cultivation and propagation. If you are a beginner at CPs, and you want your new plants to LIVE, then D'Amato may be your best bet. (Yeah, these two books are better together!) And yet Rice provides plenty of great ideas about cultivation for beginners, too. Some great introductory stuff: 1) Rice's three "Golden Rules" of growing carnivorous plants (which are golden rules for protecting our global environment, too), 2) bottle terrariums ("difficulty level: 1") and quickie terrariums ("difficulty level: 5"). Don't rely on your natural green thumb to solve all your CP problems because you are likely to make fatal mistakes. These sections are golden. (My first CP terrarium thrived for a couple years and then died unexpectedly when I was 11. Mea Culpa.)

(This updates my Sept 20, 2006 review.)

As a child I was fascinated by these plants, and found relatively little reading on the subject, barely able to keep Sarracenia alive. When Adrian Slack's "Carnivorous Plants" came out around 1980 or so, I devoured it! A UK text, this book became my "Bible" and opened a world of even more exotic species that I had not been aware of. As well, it was the first book to include gorgeous full color prints (though only a limited few panels) of these species. Over the years, of course, more books have been published, but all of them have been somewhat lacking.

Fast forward to 2006. This book arrived and I was struck by the format. The page size and thickness is virtually identical to Slack's original tome and is a perfectly readable size! MAN, cracking the spine brought back memories. However, this book FAR surpasses Slack's original text in MANY ways: 1) the photographs (and there are MANY!) are all full color!, 2) there is GREAT DETAIL given to cultivation and propagation, 3) a great deal of the text deals with MUCH NEEDED ecological concerns and makes us aware of how quickly, sadly, that these wonderful plants are disappearing from the wild around the world, 4) Updated carnivores and mechanisms of action are included that have been discovered/defined in recent years.

The book begins with a fascinating chapter about the lore of meat-eating plants (e.g., the "man-eating tree of Madagascar", etc...) and natural history, progressing to a suprisingly inclusive tour through the Carnivorous Genuses in alphabetical order, from Aldrovanda to Utricularia, and a special chapter on "Others" which was particularly interesting, including Roridula, Brocchinia, Triphyophyllum, Ibicella, and Proboscidea. The book winds up with chapters on indoor and outdoor cultivation.

I can not stress enough how this book is at the very top of the heap when it comes to books on carnivorous plants. Granted, the genre is fairly small--nevertheless, this book does it all with aplomb. If you only want a "pretty picture" coffee table book, this one is the best. If you want a "real" textbook, this one is a wonderful scientific introduction. If you want to know how to grow these, whether in an indoor terrarium or an outdoor bog, this book will do it for you ("Savage Garden" comes close in covering cultivation techniques and is a bit cheaper). Or, if you're a curious kid discovering these plants and searching for accurate information--you can do no better than here.

All said, this book is by far the best on the subject in its' breadth and scope. I highly recommend it and I thank Mr. Rice wholeheartedly for this labor of love.

Barry's efforts have produced what is arguably the best all around book about carnivorous plants available today. It has enormous breadth and combines a tremendous amount of information on history, evolution, conservation, cultivation and more, for virtually all the major types of carnivorous plants in cultivation today.

While the growing information is not as detailed as texts like D'Amato's 'Savage Garden', it more than makes up for it with information that D'Amato's text lacks. If I had to give an assessment that would be interpretable by fellow CP growers, I would dub this book an amalgam of Slack and D'Amatos books, replete with extremely beautiful color photos and much more of a conservation undertone than previous works on CPs.

This is not a bad thing in any way, as conservation is a chief concern in this day and age, particularly with respect to such rare and beautiful plants. I'm uncertain why this issue has been swept aside or flat out ignored by some authors, but Barry tackles it pretty much head on from the get go and continually reminds the reader of its importance.

I must once again give praise to the high quality photographs in this book. It has, without a doubt, some of the finest photographic exposition of carnivorous plants that I have ever seen.

Finally, Barry blends in humor through many parts of the text and keeps the reader interested. You will move from one chapter to the next not wanting to put the book down, because he manages to draw you in and keep you entertained. It's not to say that other carnivorous plant books do not have this quality, because many of them do, but Barry in particular shines in this area.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up, because you definitely won't regret it. There is some outstanding information here that is likely not found in other texts, amazing photographs and a writing style that will keep you interested from cover to cover. For anyone interested in carnivorous plants, that should be more than enough reason to plunk down the coin and check this book out. :)