Sturt Pea: A Most Splendid Plant

Sturt pea is one of the world’s most striking and spectacular flowering plants.  This richly illustrated book, full of interest for the general reader, covering:

– the discovery of the Sturt pea by William Dampier and subsequent explorers and explorer-botanists like Charles Sturt and Allan Cunningham and its complex history of names in science and the common parlance;

– its wide variety of colour forms, its cultivation which has been a difficult experience adding to the mystique of the plant, and progress to gaining a hold in the cutflower trade;

– and its place in Aboriginal culture (amazingly seemingly limited), in Australian popular and institutional culture (all sorts of ephemera, the South Australian State Coat of Arms, ethnic group banners), and in art, prose and poetry.

Also available in hardcover (stock ID 18863)