Plant: Exploring the Botanical World

   (Phaidon Compacts)

The ultimate gift for gardeners and art-lovers, featuring 300 of the most beautiful and pioneering botanical images ever

Now available in a chic compact format, this visually stunning survey from Phaidon’s Explorer series celebrates the extraordinary beauty and diversity of plants. It combines photographs and cutting-edge micrograph scans with paintings, drawings, and prints, to bring this universally popular and captivating subject vividly to life. Carefully selected by an international panel of experts and arranged in a uniquely structured sequence to highlight thought-provoking contrasts and similarities, this stunning compilation of botanically themed images includes iconic work by celebrated artists, photographers, scientists, and botanical illustrators, as well as rare and previously unpublished images. Winner of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries 2025 Award of Excellence in Series, this is the perfect gift for every plant lover and gardener.

Advisory panel: Rosie Atkins, Gillian Barlow, Brent Elliott, Celia Fisher, Patricia Jonas, Rob Kesseler, Hans Walter Laack, Gren Lucas, Henry Noltie, Mikinori Ogisu, Pia Östlund, Lynn Parker, Martyn Rix, Charlotte Tancin, Alice Tangerini, and Anita Walsmit Sachs

Additional texts: Rosie Atkins, Helen Bynum, Ruth Chivers, James Compton, Tim Cooke, Brent Elliott, Celia Fisher, Carolyn Fry, Patricia Jonas, Rob Kesseler, Hans Walter Lack, Paula McWaters, Pia Östlund, Lynn Parker, Martyn Rix, Julian Shaw, Charlotte Tancin, Alice Tangerini, Guy Tindale, Jacek Wajer, and Martin Walters.

Review

As featured in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Daily Telegraph, Garden & Gun, Gardens Illustrated, The Guardian, Martha Stewart Living, Natural History Magazine, New Scientist, Newsweek, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, Smithsonian, The Sunday Times, Tatler, The Wall Street Journal, and on Atlas Obscura, BBC Focus, Goop, and mental floss

‘The ultimate gift for gardeners and art-lovers.’ – Goop

‘A breathtaking collection of botanical prints, photos, drawings, and even micrograph scans.’ – Martha Stewart Living

‘Plant may start on your coffee table, but it won't stay there for long.’ – Flower Magazine

‘An extraordinary collection.’ – Gardens Illustrated

‘I am totally mesmerized by the extraordinary range of artists, scientists and technicians represented. Wonderful and absorbing and loving.’ – Edwina von Gal, Landscape Designer

‘From the winning cover to the beautiful images inside, Plant is a complete pleasure covering centuries of botanical art. Artist information and provenance is dutifully recorded. Inspiration and imagination is there for the taking. This new book is classic Phaidon and bound to be a bestseller.’ – David Whitman, Pergola

‘The timeless pleasure of looking at plants: a new illustrated book examines mankind's fascination with making images of plants through the ages... Compton's fascination with what different people have done within the remit of botanical art jumps out of every one of Plant’s pages. The variety is astounding.’ – The Daily Telegraph

‘An inspiring delight and great resource for those who cherish all things botany.’ – Emily Thompson, Emily Thompson Flowers

‘The side by side juxtapositions of images here are brilliant. The clear pencil drawings of Van Gogh and Ellsworth Kelly my favorites, so delicate, just gorgeous.’ – Perry Guillot, Landscape Architect

‘My award for sumptuous volume of 2016 has to go to Plant: Exploring the Botanical World, 300 works of botanical art from ancient times to the present in every imaginable medium... The images are thought-provokingly juxtaposed.’ – The Sunday Times, Move

About the Author

Phaidon Editors

Dr James Compton is a botanist and plant collector with a special interest in the history and classification of plants. He was a student at Kew, Head Gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden and he wrote his PhD at the University of Reading on the genus Actaea. He is the author, with Chris Lane, of Wisteria: The Complete Guide – The RHS Horticultural Society's monograph on all species and cultivars of wisteria.

Martyn Rix is a botanist and plant collector who has served as a botanist to The Royal Horticultural Society. He studied botany at Trinity College, Dublin, and did a PhD on Greek and Turkish Fritillaria at Cambridge. He is the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine and has authored and edited numerous botanical guides and books.