Monumental achievement
“This is a monumental achievement for the author, all the contributors, Lankester Botanical Garden and the University of Costa Rica, and the natural history and nation of Costa Rica.”
Alec Pridgeon
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
A milestone
“A milestone in orchid books.”
Robert L. Dressler,
Missouri Botanical Garden
Superlative production
“Vanishing Beauty: Native Costa Rican Orchids is yet another superlative production on Central American orchids, this time printed in Costa Rica. The generic concepts are up-to-date, incorporating the new classification based upon both DNA and morphological and anatomical data. The Costa Rican species are illustrated with a series of impressive colour photographs […] that show clearly the morphological features of the flowers. This magnificent volume is a magnificent introduction to the wonderful diversity of Costa Rican orchids, showing them in their full glory.”
Phillip Cribb
Royal Botanic
A “must have”
“The comprehensive three-volume set will represent a major inventory of orchids of Costa Rica, illustrating in detail the 180 genera with more than 1000 photographs. This illustrated account of Costa Rican orchids recognizes the tradition of research and conservation at Jardín Botánico Lankester. Formal portraits of each plant enhance their inherent uniqueness. One third of the photographs are full-page illustrations. The classification system used in the text follows the molecular-based taxonomy published in Genera Orchidacearum. A 20-page introduction to orchidology in Costa Rica informs and fascinates the reader, beginning with the pre-Columbian ethnobotanical use of orchids. This beautiful book will be a welcome addition to any orchid library. This series is a “must have” for orchid aficionados..”
Wesley E. Higgins
Head of Systematics, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Gardens, Kew
A magnificent work
“This beautiful new book is wonderfully illustrated and very educational. It is a magnificent work.”
James Watson,
Editor, Orchids
One of the best and most beautiful orchid books to come across in recent years
“One of the more beautiful books in my library is Géneros de Orquídeas de Costa Rica by Rafael Lucas Rodríquez. It was published in 1986 and contains several hundred gorgeous paintings of Costa Rican orchids and only a representation of a large collection painted between 1965 and 1981, the time of Rodríquez’s death. Now almost 20 years later the University of Costa Rica has published the first of three volumes which also show the beauty of Costa Rican orchids, but this time as seen through the lens of Franco Pupulin with text by himself and 18 other orchid experts from Costa Rica, Germany, Mexico, U. K., U. S and Venezuela. The photographs are breath taking, often highly magnified and always reproduced superbly. Excellent paper and production complete what is easily one of the best and most beautiful, informative and scholarly orchid books to come across my desk in recent years. It is a book to have, a book to give and most certainly and book to enjoy and learn from.”
Joseph Arditti,
Professor Emeritus, University of California, Irvine
Wonderful, useful, informative
“The photograph is wonderful. The texts are very useful and informative. These books will mark a watershed in the knowledge of Neotropical orchids.”
Germán Carnevali Fernández-Concha,
CYCY, Mexico
Spectacular
“Vanishing Beauty vol. 1 is spectacular: A very nicely done book.”
Mark W. Chase,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
A beautiful work
“It is a beautiful work and an important contribution to the orchidologic literature of tropical America.”
Eric Hágsater
Herbario AMO, Mexico
A triumph
“This volume is a triumph, 450 pages of delectable, full-size, glossy photos with academic text by international experts. All those interested in having an orchid library where the photos of the plants are both excellent and reliably identified, should dig into their bank balances and purchase this book.”
Henry Oakeley,
The Orchid Society of Great Britain
In a word, magnificent
“Firstly, the book itself. It is hard cover with dust jacket, 460 pages long, has 450 photos of about 300 species in the 78 genera, is in large format – the page size is 33 cm X 25 cm – and weighs a hefty 3 kg!. It covers 78 genera (Acianthera to Kegeliella), arranged alphabetically. The text for each genus covers its taxonomic history, distribution, number of species world-wide and in Costa Rica, morphological features, and concludes with brief cultivation notes. All genera are illustrated by at least one photograph, and for many there are multiple photographs. A nice feature is the coverage of the variation in some species; Guarianthe (Cattleya) skinneri is illustrated by 13 pages of photos of colour variations. The photographs are superb, almost all taken in a specially designed studio, complemented by a few taken in the wild, and there are many stunning, fullpage photos of orchids. Vanishing Beauty is, in a word, magnificent. The size, layout and great photos make this book a work of art as much as a scientific reference on Costa Rica’s orchids.”
Gary Backhouse
Australian Orchid Review
Wonderful
“I saw a copy of Vanishing Beauty; it’s wonderful!”
W. Mark Whitten
Senior Scientist, Florida Museum of Natural History
Excellent
“It is a book that fascinates for the excellent color printing and will enthusiasm anyone interested in the orchid flora of Central America, both amateurs and scientists. It should never lack in any library of this kind.”
Jürgen Röth,
Deutsche Orchideen Gesellschaft
A great resource manual
“The principal author, well known and respected among orchid researchers working with Latin American species, delivers a well-coreographed and illustrative book full of botanical detail, history and lore. […] I must restate a clear endorsement of this book, for it has all the hallmarks of a great resource manual and should not be overlooked by anyone interested in the orchids of Central America.”
Eric Rothacker,
Museum of Biologial Diversity, Ohio State University
Stunning
“Vanishing Beauty”, a tribute to the surprising variety (more than 1400 species) and the fragile beauty of the native orchids of Costa Rica. The three volume set will illustrate in full detail the 180 genera of Costa Rican orchids, with more than 1000 stunning photographs.
ORCHIDBOOKS.COM
A superb compendium
“Vanishing Beauty”, volume 1 in a series of 3 by Franco Pupulin and collaborators (Editorial de laUniversidad de Costa Rica) now is available in both English and Spanish editions. This volume provides a photographic documentation of species Acianthera through Kegeliella. It’s a superb compendium of excellent images, the majority produced by Franco. This volume and those to follow clearly recognize the fragility of all flora, and orchids in particular. Not a “coffee table” publication, this series is a major catalog of images of Costa Rica’s potentially vanishing beauty.
Russell Tyler,
The Slipper Orchid Alliance
A milestone for studies and researches on orchidology
“In Vanishing Beauty Franco Pupulin utilized all the love for the nature that was always drawing its studies on orchidology. The presentation extensive and well-balanced, the order in the taxonomical descriptions, the historical information on the different genera and species, the geographical distributions, the mentions concerning the national and international herbaria, the splendid photographic documentation are all characters that make of Vanishing Beauty a milestone for studies and researches on orchidology.”
Angelo Rambelli,
Professor Emeritus, Universitá degli Studi della Tuscia
Magnum opus on Costa Rican orchids
“Having already established himself as a superlative artist, Jardín Botánico Lankester orchidologist Franco Pupulin abundantly demonstrates his equally accomplished photographic skills in this first volume of his magnum opus on Costa Rican orchids. This work will serve as an invaluable adjunct to the identification of Costa Rican orchids by virtue of its many excellent photos.”
The Cutting Edge (Missouri Botanical Garden),Vol. 13(3), July 2006
Tan perfecto como sea posible
“Los botánicos que nos hemos interesado, sea como taxónomos o como admiradores de las maravillosas floraciones de las orquídeas, damos el pláceme a la obra, no solo por lo tratamientos de esos géneros, sino también por la exquisitez de las ilustraiones […]. De elegante formato, excelente impresión, unas sólidas tapas, pone en evidencia la capacidad de la Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica y que cuando se coordinan autores y editores y se comparte un sentido de elegancia, de valorar la obra, se pueden (y deben) hacer las cosas tan perfectas come sea posible.”
Luis Diego Gómez,
Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Costa Rica
The most significant contribution to the knowledge of Costa Rican orchids
“In collaboration with the most select group of international experts, in Vanishing Beauty Franco gives testimony of his vast knowledge of the natural history of Costa Rican orchids, their phylogeny and their classification il light of the new information derived from genome studies. This work constitutes the most significant and recent contribution to the knowledge of the rich diversity of orchids in Costa Rica.”
Jorge Warner
Director, Lankester Botanical Garden |
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A finely produced, well-organized book
“This is finely produced, well-organized book. The introduction includes a consideration of the geographic scope of the checklist [...]. Notes on methodology and a discussion on the classification system utilized (a good thing in these days of taxonomic fluidity) are also included. The species checklist [...] indicates the presence of each one in each country and neighboring regions, and wheter it occurs in protected areas. [...] Each entry also gives the place of publication of each species combination. The arrangement of the checklist makes it easy to see at a glance that, for example, most species of Lepanthes and Telipogon are endemic to particular countries, and thus of greater conservation concern. [...] The text is entirely bilingual, with Spanish on the odd pages and English on the evn pages (except for the lists, which do not require translation). Also included are plates, with 210 color photographs of orchids that occur in the region.”
Mario A. Blanco,
Department of Botany, University of Florida
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