While driving or walking through the Klein Karoo mountains, riverine areas and Karoo flats in South Africa one readily sees the larger more obvious flora such as proteas and klapperbos, but the abundant smaller species often go unnoticed. This book reveals to us some 1450 of the almost 3200 species known to occur in the Klein Karoo. Short descriptions and salient details are given for each plant.

To produce such a book there is no one more qualified than Jan and Anne Lise Vlok, a husband and wife team.

It is not merely a field guide, although it is an excellent one, it covers the ecology of the Klein Karoo, outlines the reason for the existence of plants in their localities and discusses the sensitivities of the various habitat types. It will be useful to farmers, landowners and visitors to the area. The CD-ROM included allows habitat types to be identified to the details of farm boundaries and has 2021 photographs of some 1500 species.

The Klein Karoo is the most complex and species rich arid area of the world. Up until this publication there was no comprehensive and reliable source of information on the area. Furthermore about 1000 of the illustrated species are widespread, as they also occur westwards to the Cedarberg Mountains and eastwards to the Eastern Cape.