This Atlas invites the reader to tour the farthest reaches of the rainforest in search of
exotic poetic plant life. Guided in these botanical encounters by Francis Hallé who has spent
forty years in pursuit of the strange and beautiful plant specimens of the rainforest the
reader discovers a plant with just one solitary monumental leaf an invasive hyacinth a tree
that walks a parasitic laurel and a dancing vine. Further explorations reveal the Rafflesia
arnoldii the biggest flower in the world with a crown of stamens and pistils the color of
rotten meat that exude the stench of garbage in the summer sun underground trees with leaves
that form a carpet on the ground above them and the biggest tree in Africa which can reach
seventy meters (more tha 200 feet) in height with a four-meter (about 13 feet) diameter.
Hallé's drawings many in color provide a witty accompaniment.
