Customer Reviews

Portraits of Himalayan Flowers

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This book contains the fruits of ten years of trekking in Nepal at high altitudes, in the most inhospitable terrain, during the monsoon to photograph the flowers of the region in their natural environment. This has to be done during the monsoon, when rain and sleet makes streams impassable and mist shrouds the mountains because that's the only time the flowers bloom. And what flowers they are. Their adaptation to the rocky cold world is often quite amazing. I expected to find pictures of primulas, rhododendrons, meconopsis - and these are all here. The cover shows a meconopsis that just about knocked my socks off. But there are other flowers too, some of which create a nice warm tent to encourage pollinators to visit. These and other adaptations are part of the fascination of this book.

You'll find in the book 108 beautiful flower photographs, often taken while lying on the wet stony ground after a wait of hours or days for the rains to let up and the sun to shine. Each picture is accompanied by brief field notes about the plant and they are arranged in taxonomic order. Why are there 108 photographs? Because that is the number of beads on a Tibetan rosary. The photographers sense of this being a spiritual quest as well as a scientific quest is demonstrated in the precision and beauty of the photographs.

Some of the flowers are familiar to us. There's a bergenia and a geranium not unlike those in my garden. But then there's a relative of the rhubarb that looks like a stack of cream puffs and can grow up to six feet tall. Inside the cream puffs the temperature is five degrees warmer than the inside - certainly attractive to pollinators in the Himalayan cold.

Toshio Yoshida has given us a rare treat in this book, giving readers vivid images of plants we may never see against a backdrop of the glaciers and peaks of the Himalayan mountains. His deep understanding of the place and the environment and his synthesis of the complexities of spiritual, artistic and scientific approaches has resulted in a book that can be appreciated on many levels.

This is an incredibly interesting book full of photographs showing the plants in their native environment. Toshio Yoshida did a fantastic job with all 108 full color photographs that are in the book.

By getting down on the ground and looking up at the plants you will get to see a viewpoint that is rarely offered in the world of plant photography.

Each photo caption contains the botanical name of the species as well as a wonderful description. While I'm not a big fan of photography books, the photos in this book definitely made me sit up and take notice.

There are plants in there that I had never seen before which were so unusual that they made me want to find out more about them. If you like unusual plants that are brightly colored or plant photographs that are above the average then you will want to acquire this book for your library.

I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of the photographs and quality of writing.

This book is about much more than flowers.

Look for a bargain, as you will find your money very well spent.

Joe Beelart
West Linn, Oregon

Portraits Of Himalayan Flowers by Toshio Yoshida (botanical photographer, amateur botanist, and Associate Researcher at the University Museum of the University of Tokyo) is a beautifully presented compilation of natural photography and the compilation of ten years of travel. 108 gorgeous color pictures showcase the wondrous beauty of plants that correspond to the 108 beads of the Tibetan Buddhist rosary. Each full-page photograph includes a brief caption about the flower, as well as a knowing introduction combined to create a highly recommended and brilliantly presented work. Portraits Of Himalayan Flowers is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any personal, professional, or community library Gardening Shelf or Horticultural Studies collection.