Seeds of Amazonian Plants is the first field guide to treat the extraordinary diversity of seeds and diaspores of plants commonly encountered in the Amazon and other lowland moist forests of the American tropics. This stunningly illustrated guide features an easy-to-use whole-plant approach to seed identification that provides detailed descriptions not only of the seeds but also of the habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit of Amazonian plants, as well as information about the known uses and distribution of each genus. Presenting these descriptions together with 750 full-color photos and a unique identification key, this premier field guide enables users to identify seeds of 544 genera and 131 families of plants. The most comprehensive field guide to Amazonian seeds Features 750 full-color photos that make identification easy Covers 544 genera and 131 families of Amazonian plants Describes seeds, habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit Includes unique seed identification key Compact, portable, and beautifully illustrated--the ideal field guide

Seeds of Amazonian Plants is the first field guide to treat the extraordinary diversity of seeds and diaspores of plants commonly encountered in the Amazon and other lowland moist forests of the American tropics. This stunningly illustrated guide features an easy-to-use whole-plant approach to seed identification that provides detailed descriptions not only of the seeds but also of the habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit of Amazonian plants, as well as information about the known uses and distribution of each genus. Presenting these descriptions together with 750 full-color photos and a unique identification key, this premier field guide enables users to identify seeds of 544 genera and 131 families of plants. The most comprehensive field guide to Amazonian seeds Features 750 full-color photos that make identification easy Covers 544 genera and 131 families of Amazonian plants Describes seeds, habit, trunk, bark, leaves, infructescence, and fruit Includes unique seed identification key Compact, portable, and beautifully illustrated--the ideal field guide

The taxonomic and ecological identification of individual seeds and fruits of wild and cultivated plants is not always straightforward. This book helps you to get started, and also serves as a basis for further identification. It describes the inflorescence(s) and infructescence(s) seen in each of a set of 30 plant families, as well as the morphology of the seeds and fruits (with special emphasis on typology), the dispersal units (diaspores), and, if present, heterodiaspory. The manual is richly illustrated with 640 color photos of inflorescences, infructescences, seeds, fruits, and diaspores. Technical terms are described in a glossary. Indices of scientific plant names and subject names are included. This book will be of interest not only to those engaged in the identification of seeds and fruits, such as those who work in seed testing, but also to taxonomists, ecologists, archaeobotanists, and florists who wonder what they are looking at. This handbook is a completely revised version of the first edition, which was published in 2013. An important adaptation relates to new developments in plant taxonomy and the classification of fruits and diaspores. The number of plant families has been extended from 19 to 30.

The Amazon Basin contains the largest and most diverse tropical rainforest in the world. Besides the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the rainforest is bounded to the north by the Guiana crystalline shield and to the south by the Brazilian crystalline shield, marked at their edges by cataracts in the rivers and often dominated by grasslands. This book is motivated not just by the Amazon's scientific interest but also by its role in many ecosystem functions critical to life on Earth. These ecosystems are characterized both by their complexity and their interactive, higher-order linkages among both abiotic and biotic components. Within Amazonia, the Western Amazon (west of 65° latitude) is the most pristine and, perhaps, the most complex within the Amazon Basin. This Western Amazon may be broadly divided into non-flooded forests (e.g. terra firme, white sand, palm) and forests flooded with white water (generally referred to as várzea) and with black water (generally referred to as igapó). Here, for the first time, is a book devoted entirely to Western Amazonia, containing chapters by scientists at the forefront of their own areas of expertise. It should be a valuable resource for all future researchers and scholars who venture into Western Amazonia, as it continues to be one of the most beautiful, mysterious, remote and important ecosystems on Earth.

Plants have cultural histories, and their culturally known applications change through time and across contexts. This pattern is seen in all types of uses that humans make of plants, from trees used for construction, through species used for perfume through to food plants. However, it is medicinal plants that have attracted considerable attention recently, whether as a justification of plant conservation efforts or through the perception that direct use of medicinal plants may offer something that is not delivered by orthodox medicine. This volume's two central aims are to demonstrate that plant knowledge is not paradigmatic positive knowledge but situational and arises in relationships, and to show that modern medicinal plant discovery can be viewed as the epitome of a long history of borrowing, stealing, and exchanging plants.