The Pictorial Guide to Seeds of the World

What a coincidence that Mark from Mark’s Veg Plot has just posted a book review as just like him I have been approached to review a book too!

The book that I was sent was The Pictorial Guide to Seeds of the World. It’s a newly published book by Terry Woodger. Terry is a professional horticulturalist and botanist based in Australia who for ten years had his own seed collection business.

I know lots of you regularly collect your own seed so this could well be a book for you. I must admit that I have never really got into collecting in a serious way but having browsed this book then I think I may be missing a trick and am inspired to have a go.

My first impression of the book was that it looked inviting. The cover is attractive and appropriately represents the content. The content is clearly presented, it is uncluttered and the print large enough to read comfortably but not so large that it has the look of a school reading book.

The book doesn’t claim to cover every seed in the world - this would be impossible - but it does cover a very significant number, most of which are illustrated by scaled photographs. I do like to have plenty of photos in this type of book.

Although the book doesn’t go above your head by being too scientific the introduction includes an outline of the types of fruit (seed cases) that you may come across. I now can impress people by knowing that a drupelet is one of the tiny cluster of berries that make up a raspberry

Chapter One covers methods that can be used to collect seeds including use of a tennis racquet or a small vacuum cleaner.

The main reference section is divided into chapters covering vegetables, herb & spices, garden flowers, fruit & trees, shrubs and vines. Within each section seeds are grouped according to plant family and referred to by both their common and botanical names.

Are any of these the beans you are looking for Tanya?

Finally is a section on how to clean and store seeds including descriptions of pests and fungus that can affect seed storage and suggestions for how to combat them.

Although Terry does mention professional seed collection and preparation equipment  most of the equipment suggested is either home made or uses items readily available in the home so there is no need to go out spending a fortune on ‘proper’ kit.

So to sum up the book is reader-friendly. As I already mentioned, it doesn’t complicate matters by being too scientific but neither is it too basic.

This isn’t a book to read from cover to cover - after reading sections relating to collection, cleaning and storage of seeds, the main sections which describes each seed is more for dipping in and out of for reference purposes.

Although on the face of it this is quite expensive for a paperback, I can understand why. I know from experience how difficult it is to get photographs of seeds of a good quality and then to add a scale to each and gather together all the information must have taken years. 

It may even encourage me to be adventurous and have a go at growing  new plants from collected seed, If I do then you will be sure to hear about it.

A generous section of the contents can be viewed here

If you're interested the book can be bought at Amazon UK

The Pictorial Guide to Seeds of the World: An Introduction into the Collection, Cleaning, and Storage of Seeds

 or Amazon US 

The Pictorial Guide to Seeds of the World: An Introduction into the Collection, Cleaning, and Storage of Seeds

and no doubt other Amazons too!