Xerophile: Revised Edition

This updated edition of the original cult classic is a stunningly photographed collection of the rarest and most spectacular plants on Earth, captured in their natural habitats by a global community of cactus aficionados.

"A catalogue of wonders that most of us will never get to see in person."-The New Yorker

Cacti are some of the easiest plants to grow, requiring little care or water. But the potted cactus on your windowsill is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the strange and fantastical world of cacti.

From the people behind Cactus Store comes Xerophile, a collection of these bizarre desert wonders in the wild, from a Bolivian cactus smaller than a fingernail to a cardon more than seventy feet tall. There's a warty cactus that resembles a large toad and another with a bristly red hat. Some shrink below ground level to conserve water, spiral into the sky, crawl along in the sand like snakes, or are draped in furry white hair.

The people who travel the world on extreme and dangerous journeys to hunt for these plants are no less unique. Drawing on the archives of twenty-five explorers--from amateur to professional, PhD botanist to banker, art teacher to cancer researcher--this revised edition of Xerophile spans eighty years and features new and expanded descriptive notes for all 300+ photos. These plants live in places where humans can't survive-a space where plants seemingly shouldn't exist and may very well cease to, due to illegal poaching and habitat destruction. Mysterious and magical, spiky and strange, the plants in Xerophile are works of art that capture the attention and imagination of anyone fortunate enough to view them.