A Handbook of the World's Conifers (2 vols.): Revised and Updated Edition

A 2017 Choice Magazine "Outstanding Academic Title" Conifers are known to everyone as a conspicuous kind of evergreen trees or shrubs that feature prominently in gardens and parks as well as in many managed forests in the cool to cold temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Numerous books have been written about them and continue to appear, mostly with a bias towards these uses in Europe and North America. This second edition, revised and updated, of A Handbook of the World's Conifers is departing from this traditional approach in that it includes all the world's 615 species of conifers, of which some 200 occur in the tropics. It gives as much information about these and the Southern Hemisphere conifers as about the better known species, drawing on research into the taxonomy, biology, ecology, distribution and uses by the author over nearly 35 years. The result is a truly encyclopedic work, a true handbook of all the world's conifers, richly illustrated by the author with his line drawings and photographs taken from the natural habitats of the species.

Table of Contents:
Foreword 7 Preface 9 Preface to the second edition 13 The conifers of the world, an introduction 15 The distribution and ecology of conifers 23 The economic importance of conifers 27 The conservation of conifer diversity 31 Synopsis of families and genera 35 Taxonomic treatment of families, with keys to families and genera 45 Taxonomic treatment of genera and species 57 (in alphabetical order), with keys to sections, subsections and species Appendix 1071 Glossary 1073 References 1093 Lists of illustrations 1105 Index to botanical names of conifers 1113

About the Author :
Aljos Farjon, FLS is a botanist who studied the taxonomy and ecology of conifers at the University of Utrecht, Oxford University and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he is currently (after retirement) Honorary Research Associate. He has published 11 books and 55 scientific papers on conifers since 1984.

Review :
"This set is an invaluable resource for intensive conifer research, plant taxonomists, and herbarium curators [...] Summing Up: Essential. Upper-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." - L. Goode, William & Mary, in: CHOICE, November 2017 "the two volumes are surely the most definitive source of information about conifers available. They should be in the libraries of schools, teaching forestry, urban forestry, arboriculture, and plant ecology. This is a very high quality production and is highly recommended for the conifer curious." - Julian Dunster, in: Pacific Northwest Trees 38.2 (Summer 2017)