Orchids as art

"Orchids of Northern Europe" by Sven Nilsson and Bo Mossberg was published by Penguin in 1979.

I have the Swedish original edition, and although I'm not particularly interested in orchids, I must say that it's the best orchid book I've seen. It's illustrated by Bo Mossberg, who seems to be the Lars Jonsson of plant and fungi painting. (Jonsson is a famous bird painter.) The pictures of orchids in the book are better than in any other book I'm familiar with. In some strange way, they are even better than the original thing. (I've seen photos of all the species in this book, in another field guide.)

If you think a field guide to "boring" northern European orchids isn't as beautiful as a coffee table book about tropical species, think again! For obvious reasons, I don't think this book is of any particular use to Americans, but if you are an orchid-lover, you might want to buy it anyway, as a collectors' item.

Species covered in this volume include the fairy slipper, the lady's slipper, the lesser butterfly orchid, the elder-flower orchid (known as "Adam and Eve" in Sweden, since plants with white flowers usually grow together with plants sporting red flowers), and, of course, the fly orchid!

In Swedish, there is both a sequel covering the orchids of central and southern Europe, and a combined volume covering all of Europe. Their titles escape me at the present time, and they are not readily available in Sweden either. (Unless you break into my flat!)

As mentioned, "Orchids of Northern Europe" might not help you in the New York City botanical gardens, but it's a nicely produced book for orchid-lovers.

High five!