Marjorie and Philip Blamey have travelled the world to record and paint rare and beautiful plants, but this book is a personal celebration of their favorite subject--the wild flowers of their own countryside.

Containing new full-colour illustrations of over 2400 plants in Europe, this combines the paintings of the noted botanical artist Marjorie Blamey with text by Christopher Grey-Wilson, a leading professional at Kew. Grasses are omitted but introduced species are covered.

The first ever fully-illustrated, fully-mapped guide to the British and Irish flora. Its restriction to the British Isles alone allows far more detail and more local information, and identification which is made easier with the inclusion of extensive maps. Includes specific details about plants appearing in certain areas and coloured maps designed to make location and identification easy, this book also includes details of local specialities for the Isles of Scilly. Also featured is an illustrated survey of recently disappeared British and Irish plants, some of which may return. With over 2000 detailed colour paintings and more than 800 maps, this is the most extensively illustrated wild flower guide to Britain and Ireland yet. Coloured, boxed keys to plants in complex or difficult groups are provided to assist ID. The Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland features information about grasses, which are often omitted in other, shorter books, along with sedges, rushes, horsetails and clubmosses. Ferns, though not strictly speaking flowering plants, are also included too.

This is an innovative and remarkably user-friendly guide to the identification of the flowers of Britain and northwestern Europe. By organising the species by their colour group first (and by family within that colour group), this guide enables those less familiar with flower taxonomy to quickly and easily find what they are looking for - a great improvement on the often-frustrating business of trawling through a conventionally-organised guide. The lovely artwork by acclaimed illustrator Marjorie Blamey, with a neat, focused and simple text, makes this book a joy to use.