Tillandsia Handbook by H.Shimizu & H.Takizawa Japan Cactus Planning Co. Press There are two editions of this book. The first edition is a 36 page glossy soft-back book. According to the introduction in the second edition, the first edition was published in 1992. The second edition is 134 pages and was published in 1998. There is no ISB number for either edition. The second edition is soft-back as well, but has a nice dust jacket. There are hard-back copies of the second edition but they are very hard to find.As is the case with many second edition books, one would expect to see some minor changes and perhaps some small additions to the first edition, but that is not the case here. There is some repetition of photos but in fact, the second edition is a complete overhaul. Dennis Cathcart had a hand in the second edition and contributed some of the photos. He also accompanied Mr.Takizawa on at least one field expedition to Ecuador.
Both books are essentially photo albums. "The objective of this book is not to educate, but to try to capture and convey the extraordinary beauty of the Tillandsia species." This quote is from the introduction to the second edition and I'd have to say that they achieved their objective. The color photos in each of these books are excellent. Every plant is shown in bloom and in some cases includes close-ups of the flower and inflorescence. The book is a concise collection of photos, with many unusual Tillandsias included. There is only a brief description of each plant but includes the elevation the plant is found in habitat. This will be of great help in determining what type of climate your plants will thrive in.
The layout of both editions is straight forward. They start with very nice photos of Tillandsia in habitat, the second edition includes many more photos and breaks them down into countries. From here, the plant photos are presented in alphabetical order. Following this, there is a nice section on hybrids, but is in the second edition only. After the hybrid section, there is a lengthy discussion of what can only be surmised as concerning cultivation and propagation of Tillandsia. This is in Japanese with no English translation. After this is a scientific index of the plants followed by a brief bibliography.
Both of these books complement each other and are worth having in any Tillandsia lover's library. The photos are lovely, the plant names are upto date, and despite its' short descriptions, can be very useful in identifying plants. I only wish there was more of the Japanese text translated into English.
