Beautiful book, chock full of beautiful pictures and information the way all good DK books are. The only thing keeping me from giving it five stars is that, while it could easily work as a printed book, I’m not sure how well it manages as a digital one. I can’t highlight interesting passages, copy and paste words I don’t understand and look them up on Google, and I’m not sure to what extent the table of contents lets you move around in the book.

Maybe these features will be worked out in the final version of the book, but I can only review what was given to me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to view this eARC, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view it on any of my devices as nothing would load. This certainly could’ve been a technical issue on my end, but nonetheless, I look forward to having the title in my store and looking through it in its entirety. I’ve chosen to rate this book 3 stars to not steer one way or the other because I wasn’t able to view it, but thank you again for the opportunity.

Plants and Fungi by DK is more than an encyclopedic book, it is an engrossing adventure which whisked me away to my happy place. As a curious master gardener and avid forager, there is nothing more gratifying than forest immersion. It feels very personal, like this book was written with me in mind.

The magnificent photography brought the plant and fungi information to life, such as diversity, pollination, fungal spores and mycelium, habitats (hottest to coldest, drought to rain forest), reproduction, symbiosis such as fungal heart-rot which benefits all parties and quirky complex characteristics. If you yearn to learn about the stinky corpse flower and basket stinkhorn, exquisite orchids, humbling African tree of life, lush ancient ferns or even the poisonous death cap, they are here. There are sections about the Mediterranean (where I live much of the time) which were particularly fascinating. Just yesterday I attended a fig festival and found a fig wasp in one of our figs.

Plants and fungi rely on each other. DK does a wonderful job describing each individually as well as how they work together with root systems, fruiting bodies, nut formation (exotic nutmeg has long intrigued me), invasive species and lichens. Brilliantly organized and written, DK books consistly take my breath away. More books on the topic, please!

My sincere thank you to DK and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this phenomenal book. I look forward to adding a hard copy to my home plants and fungi library.

Gorgeous gorgeous girls loves plants and fungi


DK has consistently the best visual guides, and this one is no exception. I loved spending hours pouring over every single photo, each tidbit of info- my middle schooler also loved it too. A bit over his head in some areas but I think older middle to high school would get the best use of it/ plus plant identifiers, plant lovers, etc,


Thank you NetGalley for an arc
And DK publishing for allowing me to review!

This is a beautiful, extensive and interesting book brimming with great photos and information. It will make a fantastic coffee table book or homeschool reference. Do keep in mind that it is not complete (how could it be?) and there are occasional errors. The only mention of elderberries, for instance, is black elder (sambucus nigra) and it incorrectly has a photo of black lace elderberry (a specific cultivar) and says black elder is native to Europe and has striking dark foliage and pink blossoms. While true black elder is native to Europe, only the cultivated black lace elderberry (ˋEvá) has this coloration. There is also no mention of America's elderberry (sambucus canadensis) which grows throughout North America or any other varieties (blue elderberry, red…). The book seemed especially heavy on Asian and European plants, especially hybridized garden plants more than native cultivars. There were many flowers, mushrooms and other plants that were not included that I wish had been covered, but obviously one book could not come close to covering all the species. Beautiful, interesting and fun? Absolutely. Definitive? Not so much, but using that word in the title was unrealistic to begin with.

I read a digital loan of this book for review.

Plants and Fungi: The Definitive Visual Encyclopedia is a comprehensive and amazing nature guide from D.K. Publishing.

Unlike your typical identification guide, Plants and Fungi: The Definitive Visual Encyclopedia stands out with its stunning, full-color pages. It offers visual entries for plants and fungi from diverse habitats worldwide.

It also includes some interesting info on the science of plants and fungi to help you learn about plant needs, reproductive capabilities, life cycle, and anatomy. This information is the perfect introduction to the chapters that follow.

This is a large book, but it's designed for easy digestion, with chapters and subsections within chapters. The chapters are split up by plant type, making it a breeze to navigate. The guide is divided into sections for trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals, beneficial plants, and specialized plants.

There is a lot of good information in the book, but the photos make this guide stand out among other books on plants and fungi. This book has lots of full-page images and smaller photos with informative captions. The images are beautiful and can be enjoyed without reading a single word.

I think the book would appeal to all nature enthusiasts. I am getting ready to start a naturalist course, and this book gives me an excellent base for the botany portion of the curriculum.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to add an excellent visual encyclopedia to their nature shelf or classroom. It is a book that older children and adults can really learn and benefit from.

Thanks to Net Galley and DK Publishing for the ARC in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for Sept 17th
Blog post goes live Sept 17th

TL;DR: If I had an unlimited book budget, these kind of books would be a constant purchase
Source: Thank you so much to publisher!

Science: I love learning fun new facts and this one impressed me with some things I didn’t know, presented in easy to read snippets.
Photography: The art and photography in this was the type of jaw dropping that makes you just stop and linger on a page.

Thoughts:

I used to read DK guides as a kid, no joke. I’d check out the ones about animals from my middle school library and read them cover to cover. And it wasn’t just once, nope, I’d read those suckers multiple times a year. So picking up Plants & Fungi was almost nostalgic for me and definitely gave me that same feeling of joy.

The photography in this absolutely stunning. If you’re a sucker for nature photography, or love plants and mushrooms you’re going to be fully enchanted by this. Honestly the photography is lovely enough for me to say this is worth the pickup. There were a few times when I’d turn the page and just sit for a minute and enjoy what I was seeing.

The information itself was also well structured, laid out and informative. For a surface level exploration of the topic, with attention paid to the types and history of Plants & Fungi I learned far more than I expected and enjoyed a lot of it. It’s a great casual reading nonfiction if you are looking for a visual introduction to the subject matter.

I loved this, if it’s not obvious. The nostalgia in reading one of these was deep, but I was also just so impressed. I am going to go out of my way to look for more of these books now, I cannot wait to see what other new volumes look like.

5 out of 5 stunning photographs

This is qa wonderful and beutifully photographed collection and compendium of plant and fungi life. I liked how the book goes over the science of botany and from there, introduces certain habitats and types of plants.

Absolutely stunning pictures.If a book could be described as high def then this is it.A visual treat. This book explores the world of plants and fungi.Im not a huge plant person but I couldn’t put this book down.Easy to understand.
Thankyou Netgalley for this ARC

I recieved an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. An amazing book of plants and fungi. There are amazing pictures and great information to go along with it.

Amazing. I havent made my way through this as it is massive but from what I have read so far is amazing. The best thing I can compare this to is a college text book dedicated to only plants and fungus. It breaks everything down and the amount of information is astounding. My littles and I love learning about nature and anything to do with biology. This is not something we would sit down and read all the way through, but reference it from time to time as we mushroom hunt and read it every so often just to gain knowledge.

This is perfect for anyone who is interested in the way that plants and fungus works and identifying them as my family is. The photos really help to keep them engaged and helps with their understanding.

Thank you NetGalley, and DK for allowing me to review.

I am absolutely blown away by this visual encyclopedia. It brought back the nostalgia of getting the "Readers Almanac" at the Scholastic Book Fair each year and pouring through it, hoping to take in as much of the most obscure info I could find.

I challenge readers to come up with a plant or fungi that ISN'T covered in this; to call this encyclopedia expansive would be an understatement. And thanks to the pictures, the information actually feels accessible despite the little to no background knowledge I have on the topic. Even if you don't care to read the information, the pictures alone are worth purchasing this book - heck, just use it as a coffee table book!

{Thank you to NetGalley and DK Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}