A new book published by The Flora and Fauna Publications Trust
By Elizabeth Forsdick and Elsa Pooley
After
more than twelve years in the making, the long-awaited guide to gardening with
indigenous plants by Elsa Pooley, Geoff Nichols and Andrew Hankey was launched
in March 2025. The book is a working coffee table book, featuring over 2200
plants, all beautifully photographed, identified with botanical and common
names, accompanied by a brief description and advice for gardeners. There is information on the most suitable
aspect, soil and geographic area for planting in order to obtain the best
results. There are also photographs of
the various types of wildlife that feed on (or are associated with) the plants.
The book covers the whole of South Africa and all the plants included in the
book are, or were at some time, available in indigenous nurseries around the
country. The book has been very well received, with 4000 copies sold before the
end of the countrywide book launches. A
second print run is in process. The book is a co-publication of the Flora and
Fauna Publications Trust and Struik Nature. Sponsorship raised by the Trust,
mostly through generous individuals, has made a coffee table book weighing 3 kg, available at the price of a field guide.
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| A group of keen gardeners and plant people at the book launch at Random Harvest nursery |
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| Liz Forsdick and the three authors - Elsa Pooley, Geoff Nichols and Andrew Hankey |
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| Book launch at Kirstenbosch |
For Elsa Pooley, this book has come full circle, representing
the fulfillment of a longstanding wish to promote awareness of indigenous
plants by making field guides affordable and accessible to the general
public. This process started in the
1960s when Elsa was living in Ndumu, collecting plant specimens in order to
identify the plants she was painting. At that time there were no field guides
and very few illustrated books on trees and wild flowers and she had to resort
to visiting the herbarium for assistance (from Olive Hilliard in particular).
In the 1980s Elsa was planning a book on trees and wild
flowers of KwaZulu-Natal (which would have included 900 species), illustrated
with her paintings. However, she could not find a publisher because only 12% of
the country’s natural history books were sold in KZN. After discussion with colleagues
and KwaZulu-Natal plant ‘fundi’ - Geoff Nichols, Trevor Coleman, David and
Sally Johnson as well as Africana bookshop owner, Dennis Slotow - it was
decided to start with a guide to trees in the summer rainfall region (nearly
65% of the trees in South Africa) to be followed by a wild flower guide,
illustrated with photographs. It was suggested that a Trust could be set up and
the funds used to publish affordable books. Background research showed that the
book, although much needed, was not commercially viable and so the Flora
Publications Trust came into being.
The Flora Publications Trust was established in 1992 to
raise sponsorship for the publication of popular, affordable books on the
indigenous plants of KwaZulu-Natal and the eastern region of southern Africa.
The object was to provide attractive, easy-to-use, authoritative works to
stimulate greater understanding of our exceptionally rich plant life. There are
over 10 000 plant species in the summer rainfall area, making eastern southern
Africa one of the richest floral regions of Africa.
In 1993, the first book to be published by the Flora
Publications Trust was The Complete Field Guide to Trees of Natal, Zululand
& Transkei, by Elsa Pooley. The Working Group, acknowledged opposite
the title page, shared knowledge and photographs on this and the following
books, with others like Wally Menne and Rosemary Williams joining the group as
the topics grew in scope. The tree field guide was reprinted several times and
28000 copies were sold. In 2010 a fully revised new edition was produced by
Richard Boon, with input from many collaborators, and 10000 copies were sold.
Greatly expanded, the book is more than just a field guide. It is of
considerable educational significance and also a great resource for gardeners.
Elsa’s second book, A field guide to wild flowers of KwaZulu-Natal
and the Eastern Region, was published by the Flora Publications Trust in
1998, and re-printed in 2005 and 2020, with 17000 copies sold. This was
followed by Mountain Flowers: A field guide to the Flora of the Drakensberg
and Lesotho in 2003 and reprinted in 2013, with 8000 copies sold.
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| Covers of some of the earlier books published by the The Flora and Fauna Publications Trust |
The core business of the Trust is to make
conservation-oriented literature (which tends to be commercially unattractive)
available to the interested public at an affordable price. The sales figures so
far confirm that the Trust is succeeding in its mission. All proceeds from
sales of the books published by the Trust are used to keep the books in print
and to revise them from time to time when necessary, as well as to maintain the
selling price as low as possible, so as to make them accessible to the general
public. The authors do not derive any profit or royalties from the sales of the
books. A recent decision to widen the scope of material published by the Trust
from botanical literature only to all South African natural sciences required a
change of name to the Flora and Fauna Publications Trust.
Other titles published by the Flora and Fauna
Publications Trust are:
Forest plants, in the forest and in the garden (2006)
by Elsa Pooley and Geoff Nichols
Bring nature back to your garden – eastern and northern
edition (second edition 2010) by Charles and Julia Botha
The beach book (2011) by Jerry
Gosnell
Animals of the rocky shores (2018) by Judy
and Bruce Mann
Charles and Julia Botha's second edition of Bring back Nature to your Garden - eastern and northern edition (2010) was donated to the FFPT, with all income from sales going to the Trust.
All Trust books can be ordered from the website: www.floratrust.co.za
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