Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary

by Ken Preston-Mafham and Rod Preston-Mafham

Book Overview

Many of the succulent genera-Agave, Haworthia, Kalanchoe, & Yucca, for example-include some of the best-known & most often cultivated house plants, & few plants of any kind can compete with Lithops... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881924008
• ISBN13: 9780881924008
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Timber Press (OR)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.7" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

CACTI: THE ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY

SUPERB COMPACT REVIEW OF A VERY BROAD SPECTRUM OF CACTI TO HELP ANY SERIOUS AFFICIONADO OF THESE CRITTERS. ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED, GOOD PICTURES OF EACH BASIC GROUP WITH CLEAR CONCISE DESCRIPTIONS. I WOULD SAY THIS IS A MUST IN THE LIBRARY OF ANY CACTUS LOVER.

Most complete cactus guide available.

So complete that it does not require a sequel. The Illustrated Dictionary provides hundreds of photographs of foreign, local, and native cacti. Since it is geared toward botanists and interested naturalists, scientific names are used beside each species portrait. The photos themselves are stunning and beautiful, at times showing the entire plant for quick identification. The plants shown are admirable, and interesting to look at for a while. Some cacti forms may be so appealing, that you may want to find them on the internet for further information! Intriguing series consisting of two Succulent books and a single complete Cactus guide. The binding is okay, nothing special. That will not matter once you are captivated by the stunning photographs and useful identification purpuses.

Great identification guide!!

This field guide to hundreds of cacti and globular species is one of the best yet. I bought this guide at a nursury selling numerous species. I have 4 in my collection now, and am in the process of identifying them. I have three in the Mammilaria genus, and one completely seperate from that category. This book has so many to choose from so that you will never run out of ID choices when you need them. When these cacti flower it will be a snap to put identification cards on them! Unfortunately for the Americans, these are foreign cacti and we may never see them in their natural habitat, but this book makes them look just as glorious as real life!!!

Excellent pictorial dictionary

This book provides pictures of most of the small globular cacti. It is excellent for identification of your plants, determining which plants interest you and what those plants in a nursery catalogue look like. It has a short desciption of each plant and its place of origin which may help with cultivation if you know the conditions in that area. It does not cover the columnar cacti or the opuntias so if these are your interest then this book may not be for you. Otherwise, I find it to be amoung the most valuable book in my collection since I am only interested in the appearance of my plants. It allows me to choose which cacti are the most interesting in appearance so I can order them from cactus nurseries.

Perfect for species identification...

If you are looking for the perfect book to help you identify cacti species, then add this book to your shopping cart. The pictures are wonderful; not only do they help you identify the cactus, but they also help you identify the flower. I looked up the cacti that I own and most of them were in the book. I highly recommend this book for the cacti enthusiast. Buy it today!