The Plant Hunter's Atlas. 2021. 100 pls. 304 p. lex8vo. Hardcover.

Travel the world with extraordinary tales of the botanical discoveries that have shaped empires, built(and destroyed economies, revolutionised medicine and advanced our understanding of science.

Circling the globe from Australia’s Botany Bay to the Tibetan plateau, from the deserts of Southern Africa to the jungles of Brazil, this book presents an incredible cast of characters - dedicated researchers and reckless adventurers, physicians, lovers and thieves. Meet dauntless Scots explorer David Douglas and visionary Prussian thinker Alexander von Humboldt, the ‘Green Samurai’ Mikinori Ogisu and the intrepid 16th century entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian - the first woman known to have made a living from science.

Beautifully illustrated with over 100 botanical artworks from Kew's archives, this absorbing book tells the stories of how plants have travelled across the world - from the missions of the Pharaohs right up to 21st century seedbanks and the many new and endangered species being described every year.