Pigeon illustration by English naturalist Mark Catesby

2016’s Award-Winning Books on Botany & Horticulture

Winter is the time to curl up by a fire with all the books you didn’t get to this summer—and this year had some fantastic reads in botany and horticulture. But how do you know what to pick up in a sea of books?

Each year at its annual conference, the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) awards prizes for the best new works in botany and horticulture that contribute to the body of literature in these fields. Not surprisingly, a selection of these award-winning books are available to be borrowed from the Lenhardt Library. Here are our top four picks—find them online, or check them out on-site on your next Garden visit.

Shopping online? Order through our Amazon Smile link; a portion of your purchase is donated to the Garden.

2016 Award for Significant Contribution to the Literature of Botany or Horticulture:

The Curious Mister Catesby: A Truly Ingenious Naturalist Explores New Worlds

The Curious Mister Catesby: A “Truly Ingenious” Naturalist Explores New Worlds
by E. Charles Nelson and David J. Elliott ; foreword by Jane O. Waring

University of Georgia Press, 2015. (Wormsloe Foundation Nature Book Ser.)

456 p.; 238 paintings, illustrations, photos, and maps

ISBN 9780820347264 (hardcover)

Lenhardt Library call number: QH31.C35C87 2015


2016 Award of Excellence in Botany:

On the Forests of Tropical Asia Lest the Memory Fade

On the Forests of Tropical Asia: Lest the Memory Fade
by Peter Ashton

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in association with the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 2014

ix, 670 pages; color photos, illustrations, and maps

ISBN 9781842464755 (hardcover)

Lenhardt Library call number:  SD219.A84 2014

2016 Award of Excellence in Plant Identification & Field-Guides:

California mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide

California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide
by Dennis E. Desjardin, Michael G. Wood, and Frederick A. Stevens

Timber Press, 2015

559 pages; color photos

ISBN 9781604693539 (hardcover)

Lenhardt Library call number: QK605.5.C2D47 2015

2016 Award of Excellence in Biography:

James Sowerby: The Enlightenment’s natural historian

James Sowerby: The Enlightenment’s Natural Historian
by Paul Henderson

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015

336 pages; 150 color plates, 30 halftones

ISBN 9781842465967 (hardcover) 

Lenhardt Library call number: QH31.S69H46 2015

CHBL is the leading professional organization in the field of botanical and horticultural information services. It is comprised of librarians who work in botanic garden libraries across North America and in university libraries focused on botany and agriculture. Several Lenhardt Library staff (Leora Siegel, Stacy Stoldt, and Donna Herendeen) have served as CBHL board members in the past—and at present.

To learn more about CBHL, visit www.cbhl.net.

Members have borrowing privileges—become a member today!


©2016 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Published by

Leora Siegel

Leora Siegel is the Senior Director of the Lenhardt Library, one of the treasures of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Open to the public 7-days a week, its 150,000-volume collection encompasses resources on gardening, botany, plant conservation, and landscape design, in formats from rare books to e-books. Library initiatives focus on public engagement, collections, and collaborations.