looduskalender.ee

A hundred years ago an average Estonian countryman could tell some 100 plants apart. He came across them each day: trees and bushes, field plants and weeds, berries and herbs. Maybe he didn’t know the name of each but the plants were familiar from their appearance. How many plants does a modern person know, and why should we know them at all? Our everyday life is no longer dependent on knowing plants, the necessary plant products we get, nicely labelled, from our nearest supermarket.

 

And yet there is an important and evergreen use for plants – flowers. We still go on giving them to our beloved, to our near ones and companions, we make our surroundings beautiful with them. What could be dearer to the heart of Estonians than to give and at the same time to know the flowers of our homeland? 101 of the most common and beautiful ones might be just such a number of plants that each one of us can manage to learn.

 

A pity that this book of flowering plants appeared on the shop counters in the late half of summer, but it can surely be recommended as a treasured companion and helper to have at hand in early spring. The reading year goes on!