Orchids of Britain and Ireland

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View books by Anne Harrap, Simon Harrap.

Beautiful Hair Splitting - Rated
This relatively large "field guide" is perhaps better described as a "coffee table book"...it's far too nice to be subjected to the rigours of the field. The numerous pictures are well worth the purchase price alone, to take just one example, the Frog Orchid photos are the best I've ever seen in a published work of this unspectacular species, a difficult plant to capture on film.

The site guide part of the book seems comprehensive, but could have featured more places, perhaps that only have a couple of species, the sites featured are mostly those that have several species present.

My only real gripe with this generally excellent book is the authors' reliance on "genetic evidence" to determine the status of the various species.Two examples : "until recently Burnt Orchis was...in the genus Orchis, but genetic studies have resulted in its transfer to the genus Neotinea..." Since Burnt Orchid is, to say the least, similar to other Orchis species, this seems a bit like suddenly deciding that the Black Headed Gull isn't a gull at all, but a species of penguin. Similarly the split of Fragrant Orchid into three separate species is shown to be an exercise in hair splitting by the table on page
258.

Although this is a work for the general reader, generalisations like "Recently DNA evidence has shown...", in my opinion, must be at least partly elaborated on to justify the counter-intuitive arguments they support.

Having said that, the status of species and subspecies of British Wild Orchids is always debated hotly in books on the subject, and this guide has lots to recommend it.

Long overdue update on Britain's Wild Orchids! - Rated
An excellent textbook/field guide including the latest names and up-to-date re-classifications for many species, sub-species and varieties. Well illustrated throughout with good quality photographs labelled with date and county. I feel the range maps may have been more meaningful had they been able to give an outline indication of either modern County or Vice-county boundaries, but this is rather nit-picking. I suspect the Site Guide section at the end of this book may prove to be of somewhat limited use but, sadly, due to delays in publication, it is too late to put it to the test this year! This book is a must-have for anyone interested in our wild orchids but it may turn out to be a bit heavy to be carried about in the field and end up more as a reference book on the shelves at home. I also have to wonder how long it would last in a "field use" situation before falling apart, or at least parting company with its cover...