Book Review: Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah

Like last week's Pitcher Plants of Sarawak, the Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah is authored by Charles Clarke. (It is noticeably missing Ch'ien Lee, however). Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah was written earlier than the Pitcher Plants of Sarawak, and that is somewhat evident. The refinement of layout isn't as apparent as with the later book. It does, however, cover slightly different material and is, in my opinion, still a valuable addition to the carnivorous plant enthusiast's library.

This 44 page book is noticeable larger than Pitcher Plants of Sarawak, but in terms of textual density, I believe it is comparable. I appreciate that Charles Clarke's volumes are not filled with filler of any sort - textual or photographic - but get right to the point, and do so quickly. Like last week's volume, Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah contains a few, quality photographs of the plants and a dedicated amount of text for each species or hybrid mentioned. This text is valuable, but, at times, it seems like there should be a bit more text, or a few more photographs to flush out a species or hybrid, if only to make the layout a little better.

The layout is, really, my only complaint about this book. The edges of many pages are green and include the captions for photographs, which are overlaid on the text. This makes reading the book somewhat tricky, as, sometimes, one must flip forward or backward to see the plant being discussed as the picture immediately adjacent is of a different species. This may be somewhat confusing for those not as familiar with Nepenthes.

The only other small complaint that I have is, having seen the later Pitcher Plants of Sarawak, I would have liked Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah to include more habitat photographs. Still, there are a few, and those are incredibly valuable. (I'm not sure whether it's really that I'd like more habitat photographs, or whether it is that I'd like the layout slightly changed, but in any case . . . ).

I also want to commend Charles Clarke for including an excellent map in the beginning of this book. It is very nice to be able to visualize a locality and the map in this book is superb.

Overall, I would recommend acquiring Guide to the Pitcher Plants of Sabah.