James A. Duke Botanical Literature Award
ABC chose two books to receive its 2017 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Awards.
The first, Chinese Medicinal Plants, Herbal Drugs and Substitutes: An Identification Guide, received the Duke Award in the reference/technical category. The book was authored by Christine Leon, PhD, (pictured accepting the award by video) and Lin Yu-Lin as the culmination of a 19-year collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in England, and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development (IMPLAD) at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, China.
The Kew-IMPLAD collaboration included 44 field expeditions into 15 geographical regions in China, in which 4,500 reference specimens were collected and cross-referenced with herbarium vouchers.
In the consumer/popular category, Joseph Banks’ Florilegium was written by Mel Gooding; David Mabberley, PhD; and Joe Studholme. The 320-page book highlights 147 full-page, color botanical prints that resulted from the work of the English botanist and naturalist Joseph Banks and the skilled team he oversaw on Captain James Cook’s famous South Pacific voyage on the HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771.
Studholme expressed his pleasure at seeing Banks’ work recognized. “We feel greatly honored that Joseph Banks’ Florilegium has received the James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award,” he said.
“Ever since we first embarked on the Florilegium project in 1980, it was always my ambition to publish a well-illustrated accompanying book so that more people would learn about the extraordinary achievements of Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on the Endeavour voyage and the wonderful skills of their draughtsman, Sydney Parkinson.”