A celebration of the myriad roles plants play in religious, cultural,
and national festivities across the globe.
Whether they're used as visual decoration in wreaths, garlands, and
religious shrines, or deployed for their rich scents and flavors in
festive recipes, plants are integral to a multitude of religious,
cultural, and national festivities around the world. Kew Pocketbooks:
Festive Flora is a compact snapshot of the enormous variety of
botanically enhanced celebrations around the globe. Forty paintings of
this merry group selected from Kew's Library and Archives--one of the
oldest and most extensive botanical libraries in the world--illustrate
the variety of their celebratory uses, as well as the diversity of Kew's
collection and the artistic styles housed therein. An introduction by
Kew ethnobotanist Mark Nesbitt provides an overview of these plants, and
detailed captions accompany each painting, making this a charming
keepsake for plant parties throughout the year and across the globe.