The Plant-Hunter's Atlas

A beautifully illustrated compendium of plant discovery and exploration - where horticulture and adventure collide.

The Plant Hunter's Atlas is a lavishly illustrated volume telling some of the most extraordinary tales of horticultural discovery and exploring the characters behind the stories. Taking in the world's inhabited continents and spanning the centuries, the stories range from tales of derring-do in the age of discovery to modern-day botanists working at the cutting-edge of science. The text explores how plant hunters have been inspired by everything from scientific curiosity to economic greed, and their own ingrained sense of adventure.


Each entry is illustrated with botanical artwork from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew's unrivalled collection of historical illustrations. Among the plant hunters included are: Sir Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, David Douglas, Reginald Farrer, George Forrest, Robert Fortune, Tadeas Haenke, Tom Hart Dyke, Alexander von Humboldt, the Lobb brothers, John Sibthorp and Ernest Henry Wilson.

About the Author

Ambra Edwards is an award-winning writer and garden historian, known for the intellectual rigour underlying her easy, entertaining writing style. Three times named Journalist of the Year by the Garden Media Guild, her work appears regularly in the UK broadsheets and garden magazines. Her best-selling book Head Gardeners was voted GMG's Inspirational Garden Book of the Year in 2017. This was followed by The Story of the English Garden, published for the National Trust and one of the Sunday Times' garden books of the year in 2018. Her latest book, written with Penelope Hobhouse, The Story of Gardening traces the evolution of gardening from 3,000BCE to the latest ecological trends in planting.