Weeping Goldsmith

In the great tradition of DarwinGCOs Voyage of the Beagle, this book is a first-person narrativeof daunting travel and scientific discovery in the little-known country of Myanmar.Dr. Kress explored many areas in this enigmatic country, surveying its teak forests,bamboo thickets, timber plantations, rivers, and mangroves to document its incrediblebotanical diversity. Myanmar is one of the great biodiversity GCGBPhot spotsGC in Asia, butbecause of its social isolation and reputation for political repression it has been closedto-or avoided by-many scientists. Nevertheless, Dr. Kress was determined to searchfor and record plants that had not been studied since they were first discovered byWestern botanists over a century ago. Among the rarities he came upon was a new speciesof plant called GCGBPthe weeping goldsmith,GC a ginger flower whose Burmese name wasderived from the legend that the local goldsmiths were reduced to tears because noneof their own creations could rival its exquisiteness. Dr. Kress also relates how he came to appreciate the people and culture ofMyanmar through an understanding of their flora, natural habitats, and human-dominatedenvironments. Included are fascinating excerpts from his field journals that serveas counterpoints to the accounts of earlier plant explorers. Illustrating the text are some200 of Dr. KressGCOs own color photographs of the incredible plants, people, landscapes,and temples he witnessed in his travels as well as 30 archival images of Burma taken bypast explorers. The back matter features an illustrated portfolio of representative nativeplants. This lively armchair exploration should appeal to a general readership as well as tobotanists, conservationists, and environmentalists.