Modern Plant Hunters: Adventures in Pursuit of Extraordinary Plants

Much has been published on the topic of plant hunting, and almost all of it is about the plant hunters of the so-called ‘golden age’ that ended with the death of Frank Kingdon Ward in 1958. One might be forgiven for thinking that plant hunting itself came to an end in 1958 - but nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, there have been more new plant introductions in the past thirty years than ever before. The aim of this book is to tell the stories of the modern-day plant hunters - such pioneering adventurers as Mikinori Ogisu, Dan Hinkley, Ed de Vogel, Lin Yu-Lin, Bill Terry and Claire Scobie; and also to broaden the remit: to examine the search for medicinal plants and the work of scientific institutions, both of which have been largely ignored; and to consider such developments as the effect of habitat destruction on plant loss and plant diversity.