Mountain Flowers

This series exploded onto the scene in 2012 with the fabulous Mushrooms by Peter Marren. Unlike for many singers the difficult ‘second album’ syndrome failed to materialise with the excellent Meadows by George Peterken. Rivers followed and now the fourth offering is dedicated to Britain’s alpine flora. How does it fare?

Alpines are a passion for me and I have been fortunate exploring and leading trips to various mountain ranges in Europe, north and south, looking for them. The British alpine flora is undoubtedly depauperate and I’ve rather ignored it in favour of the glories of other, foreign, mountains. This apparent lack of species is partly driven by our location, the fact that we lack any really significantly high mountains and human pressure, mainly through habitat loss and over-grazing. One thing that comes across strongly in this book is the peculiarities of the species that we do have, with some from the flora of Arctic regions and others from the Alps and further south. The author tackles this mystery with some interesting conclusions.

The book starts with a discussion on just what constitutes a ‘Mountain Flower’. A harder question to answer than you might think; especially as some of the key species can be found growing near sea level in some sites and other, more widespread, plants can be found growing at the tops of our mountains! What follows is a highly readable journey account from the south-west of England at The Lizard through each of the main areas for alpines, ending in Shetland. Along the way the author introduces individual species and separate boxes look in more depth at his ‘Three Star Rarities’ as we encounter them on our journey north. Finally, a look at what the future might hold for our alpine flora, again possibly not as straightforward as you might imagine, and a call to get out there, explore and record our precious alpine flora.

A superbly written and readable book, this series always invites comparison to the New Naturalists and I feel they can stand alongside proudly. Sweeping in scope, in-depth and yet accessible and engaging I look forward to further titles if they all reach this standard. If you want a break from birds, I highly recommend this book!

Book reviewed by Su Gough