Today the first day of Spring, we have just taken delivery of Webb’s An Irish Flora, eighth edition. This is an indispensable guide for you if you are out walking or just working in your garden. The last edition appeared in 1996 with 372 pages this new expanded edition has 560 pages with hand- painted illustrations. In addition, trees, shrubs and climbers in winter are now covered for the first time. There is also a new section on those plants that have legal protection in Ireland. Michael Viney will be reviewing the book for the Irish Times
...this flora remains the most useful pocket guide to the Irish flora-National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin
This handbook will provide you with a clear and reliable means of identifying those plants which grow wild in Ireland. This book is a comprehensive re-working of the classic and standard Flora of Ireland which was last published 16 years ago: this will be the eighth edition of that work. It has been brought fully up to date through incorporating the latest in botanical research and it reflects contemporary and modern approaches to plant classification based on recent advances in genetics.
This book is about the higher plants that grow wild and which are commonly naturalised or otherwise encountered in Ireland. It is designed to help you identify and provide you with background information on plant morphology, distribution and rarity and to educate all those interested in recognising the species of the flora of Ireland.
Previous editions of the book have been used by workers outside of the specific field of study of plant identification – such as environmental consultants, the general public, students, professional and amateur botanists etc. There is a genuine demand for a Flora whose subject matter refers explicitly to Ireland whilst placing that flora in a wider context. Furthermore, a concise flora of a discrete geographical area is of interest internationally to many professional and amateur botanists and gardeners. The book has, is and will be used in student training (it is used as a basic botanical text book in some Universities in Ireland) and on training courses for professionals wishing to improve their skills and for all those needing to improve their levels of botanical expertise.
ISBN 978-185918-478-3, €35, £30, Hardback, 135 x 194mm, 560 pages, 8th edition, March 2012
John Parnell is Professor of Systematic Botany at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and Dr. Tom Curtis is an Ecological Consultant and a Research Associate in Botany at TCD and an Adjunct Lecturer in Botany and Plant science, NUI Galway.
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