Customer Reviews

Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates: California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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This book falls into a category somewhere between botany, climatology, and geography; it looks at several different types of "mediterranean climate" around the world, and describes the different vegetational types within each region, explaining (in a scholarly but accessible way) why these plant communities look the way they do.

It's beautifully produced, with both climate maps and full-color illustrations of plants and plant communities. I know of no other book that explains the relationship between geography and botanical ecology this elegantly; it's a lot of fun to browse, and I would recommend it *very* highly to armchair travellers with botanical inclinations.

Peter Dallman's Plant Life In The World's Mediterranean Climates covers plants of California, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean, and will prove more accessible to general audiences studying plants. Here are photos, charts, and a host of details on plant communities and plant life common to this climate, with chapters providing both individual regional details and links between plants of each area. This is a highly recommended pick not just for specialty libraries, but for general collections.

The information about Australia's temperate climate needs a little bit of an expansion, for instance: Victoria and Tasmania; which are the most predominant temperate climate states of Australia (particularly Tasmania), as you will notice in the link below. Also New South Wales and a small portion of Queensland have temperate environments. New Zealand needs an entry, perhaps along with alot of other small island countries in the Southern hemisphere, however I'm not sure if they fall into a different climate classification.

On a positive note, I found the book extremely modern, containing the latest environmental and biological scientific data i.e. contrast of vegetation communities shown by 2d illustrations; excellent plant structure images from scanned electron micrographs. Along with excellent photography of landscapes, plant communities and individual plants with close ups of flowers. Most pictures are in colour, with excellent diagrams of plants from a botanical point of view, which could do with illustrative references for the ametuer botanist, like myself.

There is also climatology maps on the regions discussed within the book and alot more. This is a valuable book for the amateur, all students and those within a related professional field.

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This book is great. It has plenty of pictures, diagrams and drawings. Most of the pictures are not in color, however, which is its biggest downfall. It is not a detailed evaluation of mediterranean climates nor is it a good plant ID book, but provides an excellent overview for both the layman and scientist. It provides informatin on the plants that make the mediterranean climate unique and the typical plant communities that are found in them. It is great for someone who doesn't want to get bogged down with individual species and wants to see how all the parts fit together. I first checked this book out of my local library and felt it would be such a good reference book for work, play and travel that I had to have it. The book uses the most scientific and inclusive use of the term Mediterranean which means you are going to get descriptions of plant communities from San Diego to Sacramento to San Francisco. For those of us that prefer the more exclusive definitions it may come as a shock that San Francisco and Sacramento could be considered mediterranean so I'm warning you now. I am currently using this book to help plan a trip to Australia as a supplement to Lonely Planet's travel guides. This book has inspired me to visit all the world's mediterranean climates at some point in my life and I'm not even a plant lover.

I'm a recently trained nature docent and checked this book out of the library many times. I found so much information in it that I kept renewing the book I finally decided it was well worth purchasing it. I'm mainly interested in the section on California which at times is overwhelming but I like to "grow into my purchasers" so I've been very satisfied. tt is not for those who want something "watered down" but for those with a real interest in The Mediterranean Clmate and the plant life adapted to this unique environment.

I consider this book to be well written and to have quality illustrations. My only further comment is that I purchased the book in the belief that the author would provide much more specific and detailed information on the flora of the Mediterranean basin in europe. In this respect I am disappointed with the contents of this book.

Peter Dallman, a retired pediatric doctor and docent at Strybing Aboretum in San Francisco, California, spent many years
studying plants and traveling the world to see them where they grow in the Mediterranean climate areas of the world. Prof. Robert Ornduff, the late director of the Univ. of California Botanical Garden, encouraged him to write about these
plants and his travels. The result is a book giving the reader the best armchair picture of the vegetation of a very special part of the world.