The Timber Press Guide to Succulent Plants of the World: A Comprehensive Reference to More than 2000 Species Kindle Edition

This is an excellent reference book, especially given that its topic is very far from being a well-defined category. It's quite readable, nicely printed, and seems likely to be durable (for a normal paperback book, that is).However, its aims make it less than satisfactory for someone interested in choosing or identifying succulents for the garden, houseplants, etc. As others have commented, most of the photos are of succulents in habitat. Some of these are spectacular; in others, it's almost impossible to distinguish the plant under discussion from other vegetation, rocks, etc. Generally, they don't help either to identify an unknown succulent or to picture how it might appear if you grew it. Furthermore, the selection of plants covered is clearly slanted toward the rare, hard-to-access, or distinctive. This allows for very little coverage (much less photos) of the proliferation of hybrids and visually distinctive cultivars produced by nurseries and sold for the garden or as houseplants.So, I'm glad I bought the book: it is cool to know about where these plants come from & get an idea of what they look like in their native habitat. The author describes some of the more extreme places where commonly-grown as well as unheard-of plants come from vividly, making the book an armchair voyage to some of the planet's most inhospitable terrain. Socotra sounds horrible, but I was fascinated to read about it.But I wish someone would write an equally authoritative reference work on succulents in the garden. (And leave out the categories that have no place in a landscape & are unlikely to be grown successfully by someone without a greenhouse, etc. - living stones are cool, I personally find "root succulents" repulsive, neither is a landscape plant.) No-one could keep up with the proliferation of wild & crazy hybrid Echeveria, sedums, etc., never mind all the cross-generic hybrids, not to mention the radically different appearance of genetically identical plants under different cultural conditions (with / without rain, etc.).But I'd really like to have a book that covered the top 10 most common Aeonium species / established varieties in cultivation, with clear pictures of each one - and the equivalent for the main species & standard hybrids of the other prominent succulent genera used in the garden. I don't want to buy multiple volumes per genus - I'm not planning to open a nursery - and there are already *plenty* of books on landscaping with succulents, choosing and arranging succulents for containers, crafting with succulents, etc. Meanwhile, I'm still not sure what species several of the aeoniums I'm growing are, even though I'm a plant person (and a Latinist), and I've been obsessively propagating & slightly less obsessively researching these things for a year.So, buy this book by all means. It's very cool, and the author is both a top expert and a lively writer. But don't expect it to answer all or even most of your questions about succulents you encounter in gardens, nurseries, etc.

Well, I want to be fair....So I will say that We own and operate a succulent nursery. At point of sale we often depend upon Ref. books to sell succulents. This is probly not the book for that. The Encloyp. would be better and offers many more pictures and details, it is also a "quick and user friendly" Ref. This book, I would not use while in the field selling. However I would use just to read at home. The selections in each cat. are very limited. Well there are thousands of succulents (including cactus) This book only touches the surface and very few pictures to help identify the plant. To be fair I will continue to read and use the book and get back to this review. If you were buying it to start a succulent garden,It would be little help. There are many books than can address that. This book is printed in China....Go figure? why?Ok, after further review this is very well done. A lot of work and research went into this book. I changed my rating to five. I was only thinking of my use. I will use this book to further my education of succulents. Also in the back there is a index that will prove very usefull....Sorry, I can and will use this.

The book itself is great and very informational5/5 stars. Unfortunately the book is already falling apart, and it was opened once, which is why it has a lower rating.

Text is very informative, explaining what conditions plants need to survive. I will use this book to help identify plants in my succulent collection.

This book contains some great reading of Mr. Dortort's travel adventures, where he seeks the rare succulent for his botanical gardens. Kind of an Indiana Jones of the Weird Plant World. I really want to go to South Africa now and see some of these amazing plants in situ. The book is vast and comprehensive, with many pictures of the plants in their native habitats. I particularly value this because it makes it clear how the plants normally live and how we can help them adapt to our world. I will be reading this from cover to cover several times at least, and referring to it often. Lots of good advice on caring for these fascinating plants, also. He even includes a number of geni that are not usually covered in "arid plant" books, like Bursera and Boswellia (copal and frankincense trees). Great stuff!

This is a handsomely produced volume which, alas, will be of limited practical usefulness for the home gardener, or even for the reasonably informed succulent enthusiast.The jacket states that it contains "detailed descriptions of more than 2000 plants" and "more than 750 photographs", which is one of the main problems: more than half of the species mentioned are not illustrated, and since those mentions are usually unaccompanied by more detailed information they're not very helpful in identifying particular species. And while it's interesting to see many of these plants photographed in their natural habitat, the small size and often cluttered nature of the photographs makes identifying particular species difficult - to say nothing of the fact that many of the species photographed in situ are ones that the average succulent enthusiast are unlikely to encounter at a nursery or botanic garden.What practical information there is is overwhelmingly directed at the Californian gardener (which comes as no surprise since the author is based in the Bay Area) and will be of very limited usefulness for those living elsewhere.Overall, the book feels too specific in some areas (taxonomies, geographic descriptions) and not specific enough in others (practical knowledge for home gardeners, particular differences between species), so it's difficult to understand who it's intended for. I consider myself an "advanced amateur" when it comes to succulents, and it wasn't for me.

Accessible to this hobbyist while still clearly scientific. I was looking for a reference to teach me identification of succulents and this looks like what I wanted.

Although it doesn't cover every single species it does cover a large fraction of them, and every group of succulents (but not cacti). Lots of good photos, descriptions of the plants and habitat, and cultural requirements for collectors. I expect to refer to it a lot!

Brilliant. Well written by an expert. Good stru ture. Excellent photos

If you like plants this book is really interesting. The sort of book to read, browse or just enjoy the pictures. It also is quite likely to have you trying to buy some!

Very good book about this plants where we get to know many genera and species and their requirements to a successful cultivation.

I learned a lot despite the 9 specialist books on succulents that I already have, particularly about echeverias. I still have some plants that I cannot identify but I keep hoping