Botanical Latin

Gardening & Environment Education & Reference Science & Nature

William T. Stearn’s Botanical Latin is the gardener’s Rosetta Stone: a 560-page revised edition that turns botanical nomenclature from intimidating to irresistible. Timber Press packs every rule of Latin plant naming, pronunciation, and grammar into one sturdy trade paperback that sits happily beside seed catalogs and field guides.

Long the secret weapon of botanists, horticulturists, and landscape designers, this classic reference doubles as a crash course in a living language. Stearn’s crisp examples and witty asides make it easy to decode herbarium labels, seed packets, or that cryptic tag on a rare orchid. The 2008 revised printing updates taxonomy changes while keeping the beloved cross-references and exhaustive appendices intact.

This gently-used copy shows only faint foxing on the closed page edges—no musty odor, no underlines, no dog-eared corners. The binding is tight, pages are bright, and it ships from a smoke-free shelf ready for its next greenhouse or classroom.