Seeds of Amazonian Plants - (Princeton Field Guides) by Fernando Cornejo & John Janovec (Paperback)

About the Book

"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-colour photos and a unique identification key, this premier field guide enables users to identify seeds of 544 genera and 131 families of plants." --NHBS Environment Bookstore.

Book Synopsis

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

From the Back Cover

"I believe this guide to be a major contribution to the field of tropical botany. Until now, no such book existed, and the topic is of clear interest and importance to botanists, ecologists, and conservation biologists. This book, with its excellent images of seeds, should be of great use. There are no competitors."--John Kricher, author of A Neotropical Companion

"This is a monumental work. I think of all the seeds I've found on the forest floor that I will be able to learn easily now by leafing through this book."--Rick Condit, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Review Quotes

"'Wonderful' and 'most helpful' are the two terms with which I can describe this book in the shortest possible ways. . . . [H]ighly recommend this book to Neotropical primatologists. Seeds of Amazonian Plants will make ecological field work on New World monkeys a bit easier."---Eckhard W. Heymann, Neotropical Primates

"[A] remarkable effort--with 750 photos of 544 genera and 131 families, it is going to save an awful lot of zoologists (including primatologists) an awful lot of plant-related heartache and uncertainly. Botanists too will almost certainly breathe a sigh of relief that their animal-oriented colleagues might now leave them alone a bit more and stop asking for help with identifications."---Adrian Barnett, Primate Eye

"A stunning work, this is a must have for anyone interested in the Amazon from botanist and ecologist to zoologists working on seeds in dung. As eminent tropical ecologist John Terborgh indicated in the foreword--this book 'opens a window onto a new . . . realm of forest biology.'"---Sue McBean, Biologist

"Cornejo and Janovec devoted more than 20 years conducting research in the Peruvian Amazon to produce this book, an excellent guide to the seeds of some 544 genera representing 131 families. . . . The comprehensiveness of this guide will provide tropical biologists and informed laypersons a valuable field reference for Amazonian seeds, as well as a way to easily identify them to genus level."-- "Choice"

"Cornejo and Janovec present with their field guide, Seeds of Amazonian Plants, a unique, easy to use, and exceptionally well-illustrated key for the identification of Amazonian seeds to genus level. Even if it can only present a fraction of Amazonian plant diversity, this book greatly enhances the efficacy and efficiency of research on seed dispersal in the Amazon Basin, helps to improve our understanding of this highly complex ecosystem, and may hopefully lead to implications for its conservation."---Simon P. Ripperger, Ecotropica

"Some look like brains, some like arrowheads, others like beads, propellers or puffs of cotton. Seeds have evolved many of these striking features to help them propagate in the wild. . . . [Seeds of Amazonian Plants] will help scientists understand how forests regenerate, how plants disperse, and how the varied species of this tropical region evolve together as a single ecosystem."---Anna Kuchment, Scientific American

"The field guide Seeds of Amazonian Plants is a breakthrough for anybody who needs to identify to genus level the seeds of hundreds of common plants in the Amazon region. It will be of enormous use for many people working on conservation, natural regeneration, seed dispersal or propagation of native species, such as botanists, ecologists, zoologists and foresters. There is no other book available with this purpose, and the stunning full-colour photographs will be appreciated by any nature enthusiast."---Isolde D. K. Ferraz, Annals of Botany

"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. . . . The most comprehensive field guide to Amazonian seeds."---Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report

About the Author

Fernando Cornejo is research associate and field research botanist at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. John Janovec is research botanist and founding director of the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.