The Caucasus and its Flowers

The Caucasus and its Flowers by Vojtĕch Holubec and Pavel Křivka, published in the Czech Republic, is a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated rendering of the spectacular flora in one of the world’s biodiversity hot spots. It is a revelation, something we have never seen before. The Caucasus mountain range is over 900 miles long and up to 85 miles wide as it stretches across Iberia from the Black to the Caspian seas, separating Georgia and Azerbaijan from Russia. For the first time we can admire the unique wildflowers of the Caucasus in all their glory and diversity in their dramatic natural settings. Produced by two talented and committed field botanists during their vacations over more than a decade, this masterwork is not only filled with prizewinning photographs of the mountains and their flowers (that have never been accessible before), but it also devotes some 73 of its 390 pages to concise "historical, geographical, ethnological, ecological and climatological" information on the Caucasus "not found in any other book in English, nor on the world wide web." The Caucasus and its Flowers reflects years of devotion by its authors to exploring this most striking of mountain ranges in its entirety and capturing its wildflowers at the height of their bloom. Their achievement enables those of us unlikely to follow in their footsteps to enjoy these natural wonders for the first time and to the fullest extent.