Book Review: Gordon Cheers' Guide to Carnivorous Plants of the World

I recently bought Gordon Cheers' A Guide to Carnivorous Plants of the World. It's the second book published by Gordon Cheers on carnivorous plants, and the second one that I bought. (You can read the review of the prior book here). Originally published in 1993, you can now buy a copy for around $10 online. And, it's worth doing.

Surprisingly, unlike many carnivorous plant books, this one has stood up very well over the more than 20 years since it was originally published. Unlike most carnivorous plant books, including Cheers' first book, this one isn't as much a snapshot in time as to what was popular then. It's more of an overview of carnivorous plants generally. The book is broken down into chapters covering the history, evolutionary paths, classification, trapping mechanisms, and field trips, as well as cultivation and propagation. As a consequence, Cheers typically gives more of a general overview for a genera of plants than detailing specific species. (He still does this, of course, but not as much as in other books).

That said, there are some dated topics and some information that doesn't seem quite right. For example, in the conversation about average temperatures for climate zones, the average high temperatures given for much of the eastern seaboard of the United States are 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius) to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius). Anyone who has lived there can tell you that average high summer temperatures regularly reach 90+ Fahrenheit for everywhere south of Massachusetts.

That said, A Guide to Carnivorous Plants of the World does bring some ideas to the table that aren't present in other books. For example, does anyone graft Nepenthes anymore? I never even thought of trying to do such a thing. I'm not even sure what results you could get from grafting a Nepenthes. The field trips are also cool. Most focus, unsurprisingly, on Australia and New Zealand (locations close to Cheers' home), but there are a few others as well. While I don't know if all of what he suggests still exists, it would be neat to try to retrace some of those trips.