Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium

One finds themselves in cities with characters and drama and monsters and wastelands in a lot of television and cinematic fantastic fiction these days, sometimes to the extent that it is not clear what all the fighting is for. Yes, there are repulsive bad guys to fight by better-meaning folks who are on life journeys, but sometimes one loses, to use a cliche, the sight of the forest for the trees with these miniaturizations. In this in large-part reference volume, one does not lose track of the forests, trees, flowers, and other botanical wonders that many have been fighting for. These botanical wonders have been saved for us, but one need be vigilant for them still.

Flora of Middle Earth, not the first of it’s kind (there is also Plants of Middle Earth: Botany And Sub-creation by Dinah Hazell (2006)), is intended for those interested in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth as well as the plants and trees that live there and here. This book is well researched; the author and biological botanist Walter S. Judd have enough knowledge of Middle Earth to be among the wise or an immortal elf. There are also profound etchings and drawings from illustrator Graham A. Judd that will help one identify the 100 or so plants described.