“The Flora of Iraq”, by Andrew Brown

The Flora of Iraq, published on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Iraqi Government and edited by Kew and Iraqi botanists, was initiated 60 years ago in 1966.  Kew holds good collections of Iraqi herbarium specimens and I have drawn 67 taxa which have appeared in three of the volumes of the Flora.  The project halted following the Iraq war and was re-started about 2010 with the encouragement of Professor David Mabberley, Keeper of the Herbarium at Kew (who, incidentally, had been best man at my wedding in 1970).  There are nominally seven volumes but volume 5 comes in three parts.  I have provided 67 illustrations overall of which 45 appear in the final volume.  It is printed on demand and the official retail price is £90.  Volume 7 has 513 pages and weighs in at 932 grams.

Some of the specimens came bearing challenges for the illustrator.  For instance in Onosma (Boraginaceae) the plant is covered with densely packed white hairs and has pendent tubular flowers of varying colour.  The illustrator needs to show the hairiness without overdoing it - drawings are normally reduced for printing and one doesn't want a plant to be black all over.  In addition,  the hairs in this genus are often sculpted and there may be more than one sculpting pattern so all that has to be shown as an enlarged detail because it helps the observer achieve an accurate identification of material brought in from the field.  I have attached a scan of the completed plate of Onosma olivieri (as submitted to the editors).  It measures 17.25 x 25.0 cm.  The Arabic front cover (of course on the back of the book) is also shown.

This flora is very much a 'niche' project but I have been honoured to be asked to contribute to it and, after sixty years, to see it completed.