Europe's Alpine Flowers: A Field Guide (WILDGuides)

An authoritative photographic guide to Europe’s spectacular Alpine flora

Europe’s Alpine Flowers covers the flowering plants and conifers that occur regularly on mountains and in Arctic areas north of a line that runs from the Pyrenees to Southern Romania. For many botanists—and gardeners—the alpine flora is the best it gets. There are many species adapted to a harsh climate of extreme winter cold and strong winds, including some of our most beautiful rock plants, such as gentians, saxifrages, and crocuses. These also include subtle and rare flowers that require care to discover and identify. With outstanding photographs and concise text that covers key features, this guide enables confident identification in the field.

• Covers the plants most likely to be seen above an elevation of 1,000 metres, concentrating on plants confined to high mountain areas of Europe and to the Arctic
• More than 1,800 color photographs illustrating almost 1,800 species
• Concise, descriptive species accounts including details of habitat, altitudinal range, flowering period, and distribution
• Features easy-to-use text with minimal botanical jargon and illustrations of essential biological terms
• With sections on flower identification, the alpine and Arctic environments and their habitats, and the best places to see alpine flowers
• Comprehensive index including synonyms

Bob Gibbons (1949–2024) was a writer, photographer, and wildlife tour guide with an almost unrivalled knowledge of the European flora. By his 20s he had led botanical expeditions to Afghanistan and Nepal, and his later tours for Natural History Travel took in every continent except Antarctica. His widely praised images of wildflowers, birds, animals, and insects have appeared internationally in many magazines and books. He was the author of more than 40 books, including Wildflower Wonders: The 50 Best Wildflower Sites in the World (Princeton WILDGuides).