I live in Michigan, and one day if I ever decide to move to another country, I want to be able to know the plants around me, and be able to tell which plants are edible and poisonous. I especially want to know which plants in the tropics are edible. I am not a botany student though, but I like to forage for food. I bought a book the other day called Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants, Identification and Cultivation of Over 3000 plants, by Ahmed Fayaz Here is a book description: "Accessing detailed and accurate information on tropical plants is not always easy, yet there is a huge interest in the beautiful and fascinating flora from the tropical regions of the world. This book is the most comprehensive survey of tropical plants in a single publication to date. Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants brings together over 3,000 species of tropical plants selected to reflect the major plant groups in the tropics all over the world. It uses the most up-to-date nomenclature and systematics and arranges the species in family order, rather than by the usual alphabetical genus name, which makes identification and comparison of similar plants easier. Species descriptions include the plant's leaves, flowers, stems and fruit, as well as its native habitat, distribution, blooming season and zone. Full-color photographs illustrate the major features of the plants described. Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants is an up-to-date, comprehensive and authoritative reference for botanists, horticulturists, professional growers and tropical plant enthusiasts. " Densely packed with botanical descriptions, this book is an excellent look at the characteristics of the many tropical and subtropical species that avail themselves to horticultural propagation and enjoyment. It is among the first books to group species by the latest phylogenetic categories based on cytogenetic study of the included groups and species. Users may approach information about a species through the common name or botanical indexes. A typical entry includes the number of genera and species in a higher phylogenetic group. Common names, general shape, flower characteristics, and other informationincluding distribution, habitat, and hardiness zonesare succinctly summarized. Example species of the group are also botanically described. Each page has several high-quality documentary photographs of representative species from the groups on that or an adjoining page. An extensive glossary defines the descriptive terms used in the entries. The References section is a bibliography of the classification works used in preparing this volume. The audience for this reference work falls somewhere between the plant enthusiast and the botanist. It is reasonably priced and will fit well into any librarys general botanical collection, especially those lacking information about tropical plants. --Linda Scarth Review "This book is an excellent look at the characteristics of the many tropical and subtropical species that avail themselves to horticultural propagation and enjoyment. It is among the first books to group species by the latest phylogenetic categories based on cytogenetic study of the included groups and species.... The audience for this reference work falls somewhere between the plant enthusiast and the botanist. It is reasonably priced and will fit well into any library's general botanical collection. (Linda Scarth Booklist 2011) Best Reference Books 2011 (Neil Pond Library Journal 2012) One expects great photography in a Firefly title, but more than 3000 color photos in one book--yowza! Fayaz presents in this decade-long labor of love the fruit of his lifelong interest in tropical flora... This is likely to become the standard guide for tropical plants. Essential for botany and horticulture students, growers, and researchers. (Teresa R. Faust, Vermont Dept. of Libraries Library Journal Starred Reviews 2011) A huge instant classic. It arranges the species in family order (called phylogenetic), rather than by the usual alphabetical genus name. This is unique in a book so large and makes identification and comparison of similar plants much easier. (Clear Englebert West Hawaii Today 2011) This encyclopedia will become the standard reference book on tropical plants. The research for this volume was a mammoth task, using the latest nomenclature and plant systematics to develop a comprehensive and useful text. The plants are arranged according to evolutionary order, rather than alphabetically by generic name, so that the identification and comparison of similar plants is easier. Thousands of color photographs help to illustrate the major features of the plants described. (Adele Kleine Chicago Botanic Garden 2012) See all Editorial Reviews " I found that it did have almost all the major tropical plant groups in the world, and had common and scientific names. However, what I was aiming for was to make a list of which edible plants were from South America, which edible plants are from Africa, which edible plants are from Asia and so on. It might take me forever to write them all down from this book and look them all up on the internet to see if they are edible. Its a book made for the botanist and has a glossary of complex botanical terms in the back, and this book is not for the average layman. It is certainly not an edible plants guide, but it does include all plants of the tropics, which some are definitely going to be edible and some are not. It is 715 pages long. Hardcover. I am just wondering if there is an easier way to use this book.
Right, I picked this up about a month ago, myself. My first impressions were that it is useful, but it is by no means comprehensive (there is no book in the world with all of the tropical species of plants, since there are so many undiscovered and obscure... and many more now extinct). For your purposes, you're going to be better off starting generic -- many edible food plants in the tropics have been transported to similar sites around the world, so at least a fraction of what you are looking for would be grown everywhere. After that, I can't think of any popular work that catalogues, by region, the tropical food plants. I would think you'd need ethnobotanical works of some kind. I'd guess few of these exist, and much of this knowledge is lost as languages and cultures go extinct. Consider the ethnobotanical work done for North America, with the relative ease of travel, common language, and academic support -- much of it is already lost. In areas of the world with fewer resources to dedicate to such endeavours, I doubt you've set yourself an easy task.
Please let me suggest the following with all respect. I intend it merely as positive reflection. Quite likely there is nothing new here, but if some part of what follows may be useful to you, then that is good. I don't mean to intrude. ___________ I think your greatest challenge lies here: "one day if I ever decide…" To go to another country, we must go to another country. That can be difficult for so many good reasons. But, when at last we really go, we meet the people who chose to go two decades before us. And they have settled in, and found their lives there, and have overcome all the good reasons to not go, or to maybe go, or to go later. So we find we are late-comers. Worse, we find that we did not remain (20 years old) or (40 years old) for all those years we were making up our minds. The people who went before us were that much younger. They just did it. "Well, you see, I really do intend to go, but at the moment, understand, there is this very important constraint which very obviously doesn't permit me right now—" Yes, of course: it would simply be reckless, premature, inconsiderate, to choose at this very moment to go from being a caterpillar into a butterfly. Not right now. Money; family; so many very reasonable reasons not to go. There is no right or wrong here, and we can't live two lives at once. To have purchased your book, and to be studying it thoroughly, is a wonderful project. Very worthwhile indeed; it was a good investment for you. What it is not is living your dream. It's an alternative; a parallel. A pleasant one, to be sure. But, if you look around, you'll see you are still right here. If indeed you go to one of your tropical locations, you'll meet people there; and amongst your new friends will be people who share with you all sorts of introductions into the realms you intend to explore. You gradually acquire more friends and more contacts. You learn more and more and more. Depending where you go, you may not even carry a very big book with you when you go. The hardest part for people who like to "think things out" and to plan, and to make careful decisions, and not to take possibly dangerous chances—the hardest part for those people is in going there. And, all the while, there are all sorts of people who are very much like you, who have already gone there. This can be a bit painful to really visualize. These other people may include some whom you'd just love to meet—maybe your best friends (whom you've not met yet) are already there. All of this is based on my own experiences. If I had it to do again, I'd do it a little differently; but that's okay. Oh, one other detail: your book was a worthwhile investment, yes; but, like so many investments, it is likely going to reward you in ways you never considered. Not in the ways for which you directly intended. I hope this helps a little bit. Dreams are wonderful things. Let a few metamorphose into new realities. Then they will not be dreams any longer—you have to say goodbye to them in that regard—just as butterflies are no longer caterpillars. Best of luck. Vaya con Dios.
