🌺 Reading list
The laurisilva, the flowers, the seabirds and the whales — field guides and garden books for Madeira’s extraordinary nature.
A colour-illustrated botanical pocket guide describing 166 typical plants of Madeira, organised by habitat — gardens and parks, the coast, cultivated land and levadas, the laurisilva forest and the mountains.
An authoritative illustrated survey of around 30 gardens across Madeira by garden designer Gerald Luckhurst, tracing the island’s garden history and the role of Portuguese aristocrats and British wine merchants in creating its quintas.
The first field guide dealing exclusively with the birds of Macaronesia — the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde — covering over 450 species with colour plates and accounts of identification, status, range and voice.
A photographic identification guide to the whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals of European seas, explicitly including the Macaronesian waters around Madeira — ideal for the island’s whale-watching trips.
A wildlife and nature travel guide to Madeira for birdwatchers, naturalists and ramblers — 15 routes plus sites across Madeira and Porto Santo, with background on geology, flora and fauna, and sea-life excursions to the Desertas and Selvagens.
A comprehensive WILDGuides photographic field guide to the wildlife of Madeira and the Canary Islands — birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies — with distribution maps and key sites. Arguably the best all-round wildlife guide for Madeira.
A classic Edwardian botanical travelogue, first published in 1909, exploring the gardens, flowers and floral landscapes of Madeira, illustrated with watercolours by Ella Du Cane. Available in modern reprint.