Robert Kirby
A FIELD GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS OF KWAZULU-NATAL AND THE EASTERN REGION by Elsa Pooley (Natal Flora Publications Trust)
Let me begin by declaring a thoroughly personal interest. I have known Elsa Pooley for many years. She and her family have been close friends of mine since we first met in 1960s. Her husband, Tony, was a game ranger in Umfolozi and Elsa was just beginning to explore what was to become her fascination with indigenous plant life.
I believe this friendship does not disqualify me in any way from writing about Elsa Pooley’s extraordinary new book. Rather, I believe it gives me an extra hook on which to hang an almost inarticulate regard for her quite extraordinary accomplishment.
In any event, this book is beyond sufficient praise; in a way does not really need it. It is the companion volume to Pooley’s book of five years ago, Complete Guide to the Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei, already in its third impression, some 11 000 copies sold. There is little doubt this book will be as welcome. It is certainly as excellent.
In the same way as the first edition of Roberts’ Birds of South Africa was the product of an evolutionary scientific and assiduously human obligation, this book is the first, the epitome of its kind. An invaluable natural dictionary, its ultimate contribution to the understanding and conserv ation of our natural world will be measured on the same grateful scale as Roberts’ Birds has been.
In all senses the book is what it claims to be: a field guide. It lists, illustrates, scientifically classifies and names over 2 000 flowers. The scope suggested by the title extends beyond those regions, effectively incorporating the whole remarkably rich flora of South Africa’s summer rainfall region.
The attendant text for each flower is concise, printed opposite a page including an invariably high-quality colour photograph of it. Its English name, its scientific ones and, where possible, its local name are included. The text encloses a closer description and a site reference. Each one has its own small distribution map and, in some, extra line drawings.
There is a “general” section in each description which informs of special uses the flower may have, most especially as traditional medical remedies. It is the rarity when a species had not got some practical use. Far better than explanation is the accompanying reproduction of one of these paragraphs.
To aid identification, the book’s principal arrangement of the flowers is by means of colour, what the author describes as an “artificial” listing – but a practical one when there are, simply, so many. In a field guide of this range, colour is the most practical first reduction. So flowers are grouped by their basic hues – seven of these, each section with appropriate page-edgings.
You’ll find all the orange-coloured flowers in one section, the blues in another and so on. With only a vague idea of family and genus, the follow- up references to the photograph of the flower, its location and identification become neatly possible.
The photography is excellent, by various contributors – each page has between six and nine photographs – each captioned by its scientific name. The contribution of the many specialist minds that researched and enlarged this work cannot be overstated. These 20 or so generous contributors are rightly listed on the very first page of the book. This realm of work could never be realised but for the contribution of these.
As I write this, I look across a passage to a prized possession, a delicate original painting by Pooley of a Makhatini lala palm. As you may know, she is also an exceptionally gifted botanical watercolourist.
Pooley’s is a singular contribution to the literature and study of indigenous botanical life; a patient and unfeigned compassion for the natural world. Her latest book is a further and elegant confirmation.
A Field Guide to Wild Flowers of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Region is available in both hardcover (R185) and softcover (R145)