BROMELIADS FOR HOME, GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE
By Werner Rauh
Blandford Press, 1979
Translated by Peter Temple and Harvey Kendall;
originally published in Germany in 1970 as "Bromelien"
ISBN 0-7137-0845-x
The late Werner Rauh was a botanical giant. he had genera named after him in the Amaryllis Family (Rauhia), the Cactus Family (Rauhocereus), and the Bromeliad Family (Werauhia). I have no idea how many species bear his name but I am aware of Aloe rauhii and Tillandsia rauhii. One might expect such an esteemed botanist to write a very good book, and that was the case. This book on bromeliads has several editions under different names, or so I understand. Whatever edition you can find, buy it.
The edition I have has 431 pages, 315 black and white photos, 134 color photos, and 90 line drawings. There are two parts to the book. The first part describes several important natural habitats of bromeliads, the morphology and lifestyle of the bromeliads, and how to grow them. The black and white illustrations for this part are well done indeed. The second part is a listing of bromeliads by subfamily, genus and species. The genus Tillandsia is especially well covered. He included several genera that one is unlikely ever to see in cultivation, such as Greigia, and his choice of species may strike Americans a bit odd but that may be due to him being used to what is available in Europe. The photos are all excellent. The translation is seamless - one cannot detect that the book was originally in German.
For each species, Rauh listed a number of characteristics. Size and appearance of the whole rosette, the leaf base, the leaf blade, the scape (the shaft of the inflorescence), scape bracts, the inflorescence itself, primary bracts, flower bracts, sepals, flowers, petals, habitat and culture are given. This makes it pretty easy to confirm the identity of a species by using the book.
It's sad that this book is out of print - it's about the best book on bromeliads as a whole for the advanced grower. Only Padilla's book, "Bromeliads" (see elsewhere on this website" is a close match for this category of grower.
Review by Kenneth Quinn