A guide to the commonly encountered and ecologically important plants of the tropics. In this second edition, an additional 17 plant families are described, bringing the total number to 104, all described in detail and richly illustrated showing the important identification characters.



The tropics with their lush rainforests are extremely rich in plant life but are still comparatively unknown. Botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew have a long tradition of exploring and plant collecting in the tropics, accumulating an unsurpassed practical knowledge of the tropical plants they encounter. This second edition of The Kew Tropical Plant Families Identification Handbook brings together this knowledge in a guide to the commonly encountered and ecologically important plants of the tropics. Written by Kew’s experts, this handbook is based on Kew’s Tropical Plant Identification course, which uses classical morphology, as well as more simple 'spot' characters, to teach plant identification.