Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World's Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants

Jonathan M. Singer has been honoured with the Hasselblad Laureate Award (2008) and the Carl Linnaeus Silver Medal of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (2009). Dr.Singer's appointments include that of Research Collaborator at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. His latest volume of photography is Fine Bonsai: Art & Nature.  W. John Kress, Ph.D., is the director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet and a curator of botany at the Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of Abbeville's Weeping Goldsmith.  Marc Hachadourian is the manager of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections at the New York Botanic Garden.

Praise for Botanica Magnifica: "This has to be, hands down, the most gorgeous book of the year." -- ARTnews "Goes way beyond typical nature photography to reveal not just the shape and substance of these living things but also their essence." -- O, the Oprah Magazine "Art aficionados marvel at their painterly quality, and botanists are in awe of how Singer manages to capture them so true to form." -- Smithsonian Magazine "You've never seen still-lifes of flora this crisp and hyper-real before. Photographer Jonathan Singer uses cutting edge digital techniques to reveal delicate structures of plant life to often jaw-dropping effect." -- Elle Magazine "A podiatrist photographs some of the world's most endangered flowers with remarkable precision and artistry, hoping to raise the plants' profiles before it's too late." -- Audubon Magazine "...It's [Singer's] flowers, in Botanica Magnifica, that have caused quite a stir. Art aficionados marvel at their painterly quality, and botanists are in awe of how Singer manages to capture them so true to form..." -- Smithsonian(dot)com "A greenhouse between two covers." -- Reader's Digest "Botanica Magnifica is truly one of the most amazing natural history publications that has ever appeared..." -- Zoom Magazine "As rare and sublime as the marvels surveyed within its broad covers, Singer has produced a work to rest alongside some of the great botanical codexes in history, one for connoisseurs of the still-life, natural phenomena, and the photographic art." -- Library Journal "This single and singular volume...offers profound delight...Together the artist and the scientist observe and create diverse and new forms with these images." -- Bloomsbury Review "This impressive book should capture the imagination of naturalists and artists as well as the general public." -- Choice

• Contents:Introduction I. Orchidaceae - Presents the full diversity of orchids, one of the largest and most exquisite families of flowering plants. II. Florilegium - Portrays the complexity and beauty of flowers. III. Proteus - Named for the shape-changing sea god of Greek mythology because it illustrates plant forms perfectly adapted for survival. IV. Zingerbraceae - A tribute to the ginger family, whose members include both common tropical plants and rarities at risk of extinction. V. Botanicus - A selection of beautiful and bizarre specimens from the renowned botanical research collection of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian. Index of Plant Names.