Books Reviews and a chance to win

GUIDE TO NATIVE ORCHIDS OF NSW AND ACT Lachlan M. Copeland, Gary N. Backhouse CSIRO Publishing RRP: $49.99 This is an essential field guide for orchid enthusiasts, with descriptions of more than 500 species of seasonal ground orchids and 62 species of evergreen tree and rock orchids that occur across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Among them are Australia's tallest, heaviest, smallest flowered, most numerous flowered and most bizarre orchids (including elusive underground species). The 456-page guide also offers more than 600 photographs of wild orchids in their natural habitat (including several species never illustrated before) and distribution maps for almost all species. A botanist specialising in the conservation of rare or threatened plants, Dr Lachlan M. Copeland has over the past 25 years discovered several new orchid species and published more than 45 scientific papers relating to native orchids and other plants of conservation significance. Co-author Gary N. Backhouse has travelled to most of the major centres for orchid diversity around the world and has photographed over 5,000 species of orchids in the wild. NATURE STYLE: CULTIVATING WELLBEING AT HOME WITH PLANTS Alana Langan, Jacqui Vidal Thames & Hudson RRP $34.99 This hardback offers a step-by-step guide to 'plant-styling' a home to promote health, happiness and wellbeing. As well as advice on houseplants and how to style them, the book offers tips on décor and materials, finishes and furnishings – with styling principles and solutions illustrated by more than 120 photographs (many of them featuring the authors’ own houses). It also shows how natural elements can be effectively and affordably incorporated into any room in the house, including kitchens and bathrooms. Alana Langan is an interior stylist, designer and author whose work has been published in magazines such as Vogue Living and House & Garden, while co-author Jacqui Vidal is a designer and writer. In 2014 the pair co-founded Ivy Muse, a company that sells and designs functional botanical wares (such as plant stands, pots and ceramics) that "amplify plant-life within a space". This is the pair's second book, following their best-selling Plant Style: How to greenify your space, released in 2017. A HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN BIRD ART Penny Olsen CSIRO Publishing RRP $69.99 The second edition of Feather and Brush features 158 artists and more than 400 beautiful full-colour images, including some rare and never-beforepublished illustrations. As you might expect from a book exploring the rich history of Australian bird art, it offers an enormous variety of styles and techniques, with works by Indigenous artists, naval draughtsmen, naturalists and modern masters. Along the way it maps the role of art and illustration in Australian ornithology, bird watching and conservation. The first edition of this book was published back in 2001, and author Penny Olsen has added new material covering the two decades since, along with an entirely new chapter covering a broad range of contemporary artists. An Honorary Professor in the Division of Ecology, Evolution and Genetics at The Australian National University, Olsen has written more than 30 books on Australia's natural history and its practitioners. Among her most recent publications was Flight of the Budgerigar: An Illustrated History, which featured in our summer 2021/22 edition.

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A BOOK Foundation & Friends has a few copies to give away of the books featured above. To be in the running to win, just email foundation.friends@botanicgardens.nsw.gov.au or write to Letters, Foundation & Friends, Cottage 6, Mrs Macquaries Rd, Sydney NSW 2000 by 8 July. Be sure to include your contact details and which book you would like to receive. In our Autumn 2022 edition we gave members the chance to win The Botanical Art of William T. Cooper (Wendy Cooper), Eye of the calm (Clare Reilly) and The Illustrated Plants Glossary (Enid Mayfield). Congratulations to our winners: Christine Ackers, Carmel Cullen, Roslyn Earp, Toni Lindsay and John O'Neil.