When photographer Koichi Watanabe visited me last weekend for a tour of local Japanese knotweed sites, he brought along this book to show me an example of a Japanese guide to the weeds in their country. Now I want a copy...badly...even though I do not read Japanese.
Plant Invader 600 is everything you wish your local plant field guide could be: portable, flexible, sturdy, and full of over 1500 excellent glossy photos for 600 different species, including 300 images of seeds. The scientific names are in English, and there is a lot of Katakana in there as well, so I will be able to translate some of it on my own.
Luckily, I've managed to find it over at Amazon.jp. Shipping is going to be almost half the cost but it will totally be worth it, just to see all the American plants in there :-).
Update 7/16/07: I already received my copy, and it is truly awesome! Two thumbs up to DHL and to Amazon Japan, who has our American butts kicked in the minimalist packaging department (one extremely sturdy brown envelope, no box, no tape, and none of those stupid plastic air pillows).
2 comments:
It's funny how I always give so much thought to other countries' plants on our soil, but I forgot about the reverse.
you're not alone. I know people who buy knitting books from Japan just to drool at the photos..
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