A Botanist's Vocabulary 1300 Terms Explained and Illustrated

For anyone looking for a deeper appreciation of the wonderful world of plants!

Gardeners are inherently curious. They make note of a plant label in a botanical garden and then go home to learn more. They pick up fallen blossoms to examine them closer. They spend hours reading plant catalogs. But they are often unable to accurately name or describe their discoveries. A Botanist’s Vocabulary gives gardeners and naturalists a better understanding of what they see and a way to categorize and organize the natural world in which they are so intimately involved. Through concise definitions and detailed black and white illustrations, it defines 1300 words commonly used by botanists, naturalists, and gardeners to describe plants. 

Susan K. Pell is the science and public programs manager at the United States Botanic Garden, where she gets to show people the awesomeness of plants every day. She was formerly director of science at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where she studied the evolutionary relationships of the cashew family. She holds a PhD in plant biology and teaches courses in genetics, angiosperm morphology, and systematics. Pell lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and daughter.

Bobbi Angell creates richly detailed pen and ink drawings for botanists at the New York Botanical Garden and other institutions. Ror many years, she illustrated The New York Times “Garden Q&A” column. A gardener and printmaker as well as an illustrator, she lives in southern Vermont.