Flora

Fashion photographer Nick Knight shows his love for the pressed flower and plant collection of the Museum of Natural History of London in Flora. Each specimen is carefully chosen and photographed. Deciding between beautiful plants was quite a task for Knight: "The herbarium ... contains over six million samples. It has taken over three and a half years to discover plants for this book. Thousands were taken out for consideration.... I would look forward to each day of searching enormously." The 46 full-color plates pop so vividly from the white backgrounds that it's almost as if there were actual pressed flowers between the pages. The specimens are graceful, geometric, twisted, or spindly with colorful petals, leaves, and seeds. In their flattened arrangements, they look otherworldly, like sea creatures or insects frozen in time. The book includes a detailed commentary of the various flora and fauna written by botanical curator Sandra Knapp. She offers great information, including the history and human uses of the various flowers and plants along with the relationships between different plant species. There is a real energy to her descriptions--the flora become a cast of characters, each with personality and fascinating quirks that only nature can provide. --J.P. Cohen