Wildflowers of Turkey. Vol ume 1: Bulbous Plants. 2013. 860 colour photographs. 504 p. Paper bd. - English, with Latin, Turkish and Common English plant names.

Second hand copy. Mint condition.

Descriptions and photographs of 533 bulbous plants with true bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, etc.

In Turkey, wildflowers are suffering from bulb hunters. The country has long been famed for its bulbs, having the richest variety of bulbs in the world, with great numbers of Orchid, Fritillary, Crocus, Colchicum and Cyclamen. This natural wealth mirrors the general richness of Turkish flora, which totals 11466 species, of which 3649 are endemic plants. This diversity stems principally from country`s geographical position, sandwiched between the steps of Central Asia, the deserts of Syria, the cold afforested mountains of Central Europe, and the Mediterranean to the west.

At the turn of the 20th century, commercial collectors from Europe scoured the hills and the mountain sides of Anatolia in search of new and exciting bulbous plants. Local people were paid to help in this collecting. At the height of the trade some 71 million bulbs were exported in one year - including over 11 million Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis), 10 million Grecian Wind-flowers (Anemone blanda), and a staggering 30 million Snowdrops (principally Galanthus elwesii).

This is not just the past century`s problem, - mass collecting of flowers of Turkey started as early as the 17th century. As a result of all this collecting, we have already lost some of the endemic species and some of those remaining are endangered. And yet we are starting to see some success in preserving endangered species. Galanthus elwesii was just about to disappear, but with the help of alert botanists and naturalists, people were encouraged to grow these bulbs in their gardens rather than collect them from the wild. We now once again find colonies of these plants growing naturaly in the wilderness.