Festive Flora

A celebration of the myriad roles plants play in religious, cultural, and national festivities across the globe.   Whether they're used as visual decoration in wreaths, garlands, and religious shrines, or deployed for their rich scents and flavors in festive recipes, plants are integral to a multitude of religious, cultural, and national festivities around the world. Kew Pocketbooks: Festive Flora is a compact snapshot of the enormous variety of botanically enhanced celebrations around the globe. Forty paintings of this merry group selected from Kew's Library and Archives-one of the oldest and most extensive botanical libraries in the world-illustrate the variety of their celebratory uses, as well as the diversity of Kew's collection and the artistic styles housed therein. An introduction by Kew ethnobotanist Mark Nesbitt provides an overview of these plants, and detailed captions accompany each painting, making this a charming keepsake for plant parties throughout the year and across the globe.