AUSTRALIAN FLORA WEST AUSTRALIANA RARE

A copy of the 1951 First edition is held in the Battye Library rare book collection.  

 SCARCE. The first book written by Rica Erickson, Orchids of the West, identified and illustrated the genera of wild orchids to be found in Western Australia. Written in an easy-to-read style for the nature lover it did not sacrifice scientific accuracy and so was also of use to the serious botanist.

Rica Erickson’s early illustrated books, Orchids of the West (1951), Triggerplants (1958), and Plants of Prey in Australia (1968) have inspired botanical artists for decades. These guidebooks combined wonderful illustrations, simplicity of expression and good scientific information which encouraged readers to be inquisitive and to look closely at plants in the Western Australian bush. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Rica contributed articles to magazines such as Wildlife, Outdoors and the Australian Orchid Review. She died in September 2009, a year after launching Brush with Gondwana at the age of 100.