Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates: California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin

Book Description

This book provides a wonderful overview of the landscapes, vegetation types, and plants of the five regions of the world that have a Mediterranean climate. This climate of mild, rainy winters and dry, warm summers is found in California, Central Chile, the Cape Region of South Africa, the southwestern part of Australia and the Mediterranean Basin. The regions are widely separated and the flora of each is distinctive, having for the most part developed independently. Nevertheless, the plants share remarkably similar characteristics which allow them to thrive in these unusual conditions.
Peter Dallman's non-technical prose is complemented by numerous maps, tables, and figures, and the book is richly illustrated with photographs of landscapes, plants, and flowers. With its detailed information on some of the world's most resilient plant life, this book will serve as an excellent reference for everyone interested in growing drought-resistant plants and as a naturalist's guide to these beautiful and unusual bioregions.
For the growing number of travelers whose vacations focus on learning about and appreciating natural history, Dallman also includes a chapter on planning trips to the five Mediterranean regions.

Customer Reviews:

Great overview of mediterranean climates.......2005-09-19

This book is great. It has plenty of pictures, diagrams and drawings. Most of the pictures are not in color, however, which is its biggest downfall. It is not a detailed evaluation of mediterranean climates nor is it a good plant ID book, but provides an excellent overview for both the layman and scientist. It provides informatin on the plants that make the mediterranean climate unique and the typical plant communities that are found in them. It is great for someone who doesn't want to get bogged down with individual species and wants to see how all the parts fit together. I first checked this book out of my local library and felt it would be such a good reference book for work, play and travel that I had to have it. The book uses the most scientific and inclusive use of the term Mediterranean which means you are going to get descriptions of plant communities from San Diego to Sacramento to San Francisco. For those of us that prefer the more exclusive definitions it may come as a shock that San Francisco and Sacramento could be considered mediterranean so I'm warning you now. I am currently using this book to help plan a trip to Australia as a supplement to Lonely Planet's travel guides. This book has inspired me to visit all the world's mediterranean climates at some point in my life and I'm not even a plant lover.

Author's Credentials.......2004-09-21

Peter Dallman, a retired pediatric doctor and docent at Strybing Aboretum in San Francisco, California, spent many years
studying plants and traveling the world to see them where they grow in the Mediterranean climate areas of the world. Prof. Robert Ornduff, the late director of the Univ. of California Botanical Garden, encouraged him to write about these
plants and his travels. The result is a book giving the reader the best armchair picture of the vegetation of a very special part of the world.

A thoughtful, beautifully produced book.......2001-01-02

This book falls into a category somewhere between botany, climatology, and geography; it looks at several different types of "mediterranean climate" around the world, and describes the different vegetational types within each region, explaining (in a scholarly but accessible way) why these plant communities look the way they do.

It's beautifully produced, with both climate maps and full-color illustrations of plants and plant communities. I know of no other book that explains the relationship between geography and botanical ecology this elegantly; it's a lot of fun to browse, and I would recommend it *very* highly to armchair travellers with botanical inclinations.

A "must" for horticulralists and gardeners........2000-02-03

Peter Dallman's Plant Life In The World's Mediterranean Climates covers plants of California, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean, and will prove more accessible to general audiences studying plants. Here are photos, charts, and a host of details on plant communities and plant life common to this climate, with chapters providing both individual regional details and links between plants of each area. This is a highly recommended pick not just for specialty libraries, but for general collections.

Sun-Drenched Gardens: The Mediterranean Style

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olive grove in greece
Vibrating Sun-Drenched Gardens
Good reference book. Wide spectrum of gardens shown
Good overview of the mediterranean garden
Defines the Aesthetic

Sun-Drenched Gardens: The Mediterranean Style
Jan Smithen
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810932903

Book Description

The Mediterranean climate, with its mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, gave rise to a gardening style that is very much in vogue today. Not only do Mediterranean-style gardens offer gorgeous, fragrant, soothing sanctuaries that are wonderfully easy to maintain, but water-saving planting is environmentally sound and enormously appealing whatever one's region or climatic zone. This lush, seductive volume showcases the distinctive beauty of some 25 gardens in France, Italy, Spain, and California that employ drought-tolerant plants such as agaves and other succulents, wisteria, lavenders, geraniums, and even some roses-and design features such as terraces, arbors, hedges, pergolas, topiary, statuary, decorative tile, and terra-cotta containers-that are hallmarks of the sun-drenched garden aesthetic.

Lucinda Lewis's 200 color photographs, made especially for this book, take the reader through a variety of private and public gardens, some grand and some intimate, while extended captions provide the practical information that gardeners want to know, as well as design ideas that will help them create their own place of escape or enchantment.

Customer Reviews:

olive grove in greece.......2007-08-07

Having bought an olive grove in greece, we are now setting about making a garden and found that this book gave us lots of ideas and enjoyed it thoroughly. It will be read a lot.

Vibrating Sun-Drenched Gardens.......2007-05-26

Sunshine is the most defining element of a mediterranean garden. Pliny the Younger (AD 61-113) wrote of the detached room in his own garden with its cool marble floors. It was open on all sides and covered with vines. He loved to rest in the airy green shade.

In a bright and arid climate, the contrasts provide a breathtaking visual and sensory experience that this book passionately and successfully conveys.

It features ideas such as those based on a French tese with a shady tunnel of green clipped shrubs that function as doorways to sequential rooms, - Italian gardens sliced out of terracing and covered with alluring ancient pietra dura, - niches with terra-cotta figures, grottos, and Southern Californian water features.

The lavishly, and skillfully photographed book is divided into chapters that demonstrate how to achieve the mediterranean look in plantings, introduce shade and water features, create structure with various types of enclosures, design with clipped and pruned greenery, and adroitly use gravel, stone, and other paving materials instead of lawns.

The book is an inspiration and sensory delight.

Good reference book. Wide spectrum of gardens shown.......2005-11-03

This book is serving as a good reference material for me. Living in the a sub-tropical region, where water is short and the hot/dry season is similar to a mediterrean climate I have been successfully using some of the garden ideas to landscape my own garden. I would recommend this book for the garden enthusiast who wants to start a garden where the soil is not idea and water is scarce, or just for some
one who wishes to grow plants which will thrive in subtropical regions.

Good overview of the mediterranean garden.......2005-03-09

Living in Colorado, sun-drenched, low-water gardens are pretty much required (at least in my yard: I have about 10 sq. ft. of shade). This book provides an attractive overview of the Mediterranean garden style using some textual descriptions and many photos, with an emphasis on pics of Italian and southern California gardens. Even though many of the classic Mediterranean garden plants are not hardy for me, this book is still useful for studying the structure and design elements of a Mediterranean garden. My only complaint is that the photos appear washed out. I'm sure this was deliberate --- these are "sun-drenched" gardens, after all --- but it makes the detailed structure and the individual plants difficult to discern.

Defines the Aesthetic.......2004-02-26

This an important work for those concerned with garden design. There are many examples of the Mediterranean Style, with emphasis on French, Italian, and Californian interpretations. The volume is light on text and heavy on pictures (and they are of exceptional quality). At times, the captions neglect to inform the reader of the dominant plant's identity. This is a good introductory volume for the hobbyist and would be a valuable tool for designers to use with clients to clarify and illustrate the style. Great advocacy for use of drought tolerant plants.

Gardening the Mediterranean Way: How to Create a Waterwise, Drought-Tolerant Garden

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Great ideas for the Med.
As beautiful to page through as it is user-friendly

Gardening the Mediterranean Way: How to Create a Waterwise, Drought-Tolerant Garden
Heidi Gildemeister
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810956004

Book Description

Over the last 25 years, Heidi Gildemeister has converted a dry landscape on the western Mediterranean coast into a gorgeous, thriving ten-acre garden. Her own experience and research have taught her the secrets of utilizing drought-resistant plants and waterwise gardening practices to allow the soil and plants to absorb enough winter rain so they can survive the dry summer.

Now this expert gardener, author of the widely praised Mediterranean Gardening: A Waterwise Approach, shares her wealth of knowledge in a lovely, inspirational volume that shows us how to create a lush garden in mediterranean-climate regions throughout the world. Her presentation of 20 dream gardens-among them an olive grove in bloom, a haven by the sea, and a scented shade garden, each with extensive plant lists and practical advice-is at the heart of her book, illustrated with more than 200 of her own, exquisite full-color photographs. AUTHOR BIO: Heidi Gildemeister, a founding member and former president of the Mediterranean Garden Society, is the author of Mediterranean Gardening: A Waterwise Approach and has contributed to The New Royal Horticulture Society Dictionary of Gardening. She lives in Mallorca, Spain.

Customer Reviews:

Great ideas for the Med........2005-09-18

Gildermeister goes into detail on several subjects when doing gardening in Mediterranean climates. This book is a great complementary book to her book "Mediterranean Gardening" because it expands on some of the ideas she fist presents in that book but, "Gardening the Mediterranean Way" stands well alone because it looks at specific gardening situation in such a way that the reader will not find it lacking. This is a delightful book that gives both novice and expereinced gardener a better understanting of med. gardening. The book has wonderful illustrations, photos and great ideas that, in her own words, makes one's garden a 'personal Eden'.

As beautiful to page through as it is user-friendly.......2004-10-12

Gardening The Mediterranean Way: How To Create A Waterwise Drought-Tolerant Garden by Heidi Gildemeister (a founding member and former president of the Mediterranean Gardening Society) is a highly meticulous guide drawing on the author's years of experience to create beautiful, healthy gardens that can thrive in areas subject to drought. Featuring environmentally sound techniques that take the effects of the seasons into full account, gorgeous color photography, extensive recommendations of plants that are hardy, versatile, and labor-saving, exhaustively detailed instructions for gardeners of all experience levels from novice to expert, and much more, Gardening The Mediterranean Way is a solid instructional, as beautiful to page through as it is user-friendly. Highly recommended.

Garden Plants for Mediterranean Climates

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Garden Plants for Mediterranean Climates
Graham Payne
Manufacturer: Crowood Press, Limited, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1861265484

Book Description

This superb guide to plants that thrive in Mediterranean climates features a wealth of advice on selection, planting, and care; an A–Z guide to 1,000 plants; a cross–referenced listing of botanical names; and 500 color photos.

Australian Plants for Mediterranean Climate Gardens

Average customer rating:

Excellent book for Mediterranean Climate Gardening...

Australian Plants for Mediterranean Climate Gardens
Rodger Elliott
Manufacturer: Rosenberg Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1877058181

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book for Mediterranean Climate Gardening..........2005-02-01

A great book with a wealth of background information on many plant materials suitable for a mediterranean climate.

Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates, the Trees of San Diego

Average customer rating:

Indeed, "friendly and informative"!

Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates, the Trees of San Diego
Steve Brigham
Manufacturer: Ibis Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0934797234

Product Description

Ornamental Trees for Mediterranean Climates is the first hardbound, full-color book to showcase 260 of the most beautiful trees of the San Diego area with detailed descriptions and cultivation tips. Up to three color photos illustrate each tree, including close-ups of flowers, bark, fruit and leaves. An easy-to-use color chart shows which trees are in bloom each month of the year. All the trees were photographed in garden settings, with over 500 gorgeous color photos by Don Walker, founder of the San Diego Horticultural Society. The text is by horticulturist Steve Brigham, owner of Buena Creek Gardens. This important and lavishly-illustrated book is published by the San Diego Horticultural Society.

Customer Reviews:

Indeed, "friendly and informative"!.......2007-02-09

I love the fact that I can drive locally and see a tree of interest in its mature growth phase. It helps me visualize how it might look in my yard. I wanted to replace three mediocre shrubs that were side by side. My typical approach to plant selection had been a knee jerk reaction to something I saw in a home and garden magazine that looked pretty, irrespective if it really would grow in my area. By using the color charts in the back of this book, I looked for trees that met my needs for height, width, and color of bloom. I made six choices and took the list to a local nursery. I got my first three choices and am more than pleased with the outcome of the mature growth. With the help of this book, for once, I made plant selections with an intelligent approach for the present and future.

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The exotic and the erotic.
The exotic and the erotic.

Sultry Climates: Travel and Sex
Ian Littlewood
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306812215

Amazon.com

Travel can mean travail, risk, even danger. Given all that, why have so many people over the course of history taken the trouble to take themselves out of their familiar surroundings and wander off to distant, unfamiliar places?

Well, the rewards for the adventurous traveler are many, writes literary historian Ian Littlewood, among them the promise of self-discovery, of education, of broadening one's horizons. But, more elementally, there's another lure: the prospect of landing in a strange new bed with an exotic partner somewhere far from home. "Travel," Littlewood neatly observes, "tends to undermine moral absolutes." And so many travelers have found out for themselves: Oliver Goldsmith, for instance, who concluded of Italy, "sensual bliss is all the nation knows"; James Boswell, who filled his diaries of travels to the continent with "sultanesque fantasy" and some sultanesque fact; and Lord Byron, who, "having left England in a blaze of scandal ... took full advantage of the sexual privileges of exile."

Littlewood's learned but engaging study takes a fresh look at the cultural history of journeying from a fly-on-the-bedroom-wall point of view, and fans of literary travel will find much of interest in his pages. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The shadow history of traveling--for erotic fulfillment. Here, said the reviewer for Salon.com, is a book that is "lively and accessible and erudite...the perfect companion for anyone who wouldn't be caught dead with an airport paperback--though I wouldn't want to wager which one provides more juice."

Historically, the sexual motives of travel have rarely been spelled out in travel guides and brochures. Sultry Climates is an alternative history of tourism, made up of precisely the details that usually go unmentioned. As Ian Littlewood demonstrates with dazzling elegance and wit, if we want to make sense of the celebrated "Grand Tour" of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, it's as important to take account of travelers' visits to Dresden streetwalkers and Venetian courtesans as it is to reckon with their visits to the Dresden picture gallery and the Doge's Palace. From Byron in Greece to Isherwood in Germany, from American expatriates on the Left Bank to Orton in Morocco and right up to the present day, what emerges from these experiences is a continuing motif of tourism, previously neglected or ignored--"a breathless book, a Grand Tour in and of itself" (Los Angeles Times).

Customer Reviews:

The exotic and the erotic........2003-05-09

Why do people travel? For Ian Littlewood, 'the sexual element is vital to tourism' (p.5).

His book offers a keen look at (sex) tourism through the ages (from the 17th century till today).
He uses therefore mostly the diaries of well-known writers or artists like Boswell, Wilde, Gide, Loti, Forster, Byron, Isherwood, Waugh, Gauguin and others.
For those who didn't read these diaries, this book constitutes an excellent documentary base for some aspects (sexual) of the lives of these men.

The author shows clearly that women as well as men escaped through travel from their unhappy (matrimonial) or dangerous (homosexuality) home situation, and also that their main goal was 'sex with the young', and sometimes 'with the very young' (paedophilia).

I recommend this book because it treats a modern subject, without dodging an often disguised but essential part of it.

The exotic and the erotic........2003-04-29

Why do people travel? For Ian Littlewood, 'the sexual element is vital to tourism' (p.5).

His book is mostly based on the diaries of writers and artists like Boswell, Wilde, Gide, Loti, Forster, Byron, Isherwood, Waugh, Gauguin, with at the end a comment on the Club Med.
It constitutes a keen look at (sex) tourism through the ages.

Since travel began (the British coming over to the continent), the sexual component was an implicit part of the story. The official reason was culture (opening of the mind), but the unofficial one was sexual 'education'. The home comers couldn't disguise it, for they were infected by VD's.

Travel reflected and still reflects economic power and 'colonialist' superiority.
For the affluent who could afford it, Italy (and also Africa) was the main pleasure ground for women travellers; Paris and the Mediterranean countries (Algeria) for men. Their main goal was 'sex with the young', also the very young (paedophilia).

Travel was and is an escape. Now, an escape out of stress. In the former centuries an escape out of the home situation: for women, the subordination; for men, lack of sexual liberty and condemnation of homosexuality.

Book Description

Mediterranean climates such as California, with hot dry summers and mild wet winters, require a different kind of planting than classic European woodland or cottage styles. Here the author encourages thoughtful planning to create the extraordinary effects possible in sunny environments.

Mediterranean Land-surface Processes Assessed from Space (Regional Climate Studies)

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Mediterranean Land-surface Processes Assessed from Space (Regional Climate Studies)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540401512

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The book describes the steps which lead from the raw signals measured in space to firstly calibrated an comparable long term data sets and in a second step to information for user communities. From the primarily spectral radiances information is inferred which is needed in the context of modeling climate variability such as the variable surface albedo and temperatures, soil moisture, and energy and water vapour fluxes between the surface and the atmosphere. This includes the assessment of medium scale land-surface changes like desertification and biomass productivity. Examples of applications and data validations result from different investigations in the Mediteranean area. An appendix summarizes useful formulas of the evaluation of satellite data. Beside the presentation of research results the book will therefore also be of interest for newcomers in the field and satellite data users who like to understand in greater detail the generation and information content of remote sensing data.

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Mediterranean Climate

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540438386

Book Description

This is the first volume in the series "Regional Climate Studies". It presents the analysis of climatological data from 500 years b.c. to the present day. It discusses climate variablity and its interaction with the biosphere in the Mediterranean area. Different approaches are applied to describe and interpret climate variability and to denote trends. Specific emphasis is given to variable water cycle which makes the book a prerequisite for all those concerned with the problem of desertification as well as the validation of climate models. The book adresses the role of remote sensing data to detect synergies throughout the Mediterranean basin and refers to recent marine research results. The second volume of the series will probably be published in February 2003.

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