The Olmsted Parks of Louisville: A Botanical Field Guide

"A quality tribute to America's greatest landscape architect, these parks he created, and especially the plants that thrive there." —Plant Science Bulletin

Frederick Law Olmsted, popularly known as the "Father of American Landscape Architecture," is famous for designing New York City's Central Park, the US Capitol grounds, and the campuses of institutions such as Stanford University and the University of Chicago. His celebrated projects in Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, and other cities led to a commission from the city of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1891. There, he partnered with community leaders to design a network of scenic parks, tree-lined parkways, elegant neighborhoods, and beautifully landscaped estate gardens that thousands of visitors still enjoy today.

The Olmsted Parks of Louisville is the first authoritative manual on the 380 species of trees, herbaceous plants, shrubs, and vines populating the nearly 1,900 acres that comprise Cherokee, Seneca, Iroquois, Shawnee, and Chickasaw Parks. Designed for easy reference, this handy field guide includes detailed photos and maps as well as ecological and historical information about each park. Patricia Dalton Haragan also includes sections detailing the many species of invasive plants in the parks and discusses the native flora that they displaced.

This guide provides a key to Olmsted's vision, revealing how various plant species were arranged to emphasize the beauty and grandeur of nature. It's an essential resource for students, nature enthusiasts, and visitors from near and far.