The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms

Robert Lee Riffle (1940–2006) was an internationally recognized authority on palms and tropical plants. His landmark book, The Tropical Look: An Encyclopedia of Dramatic Landscape Plants (1998), won an American Horticultural Society Book Award, as did An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms (2003), which he co-wrote with Paul Craft. For 25 years Bob was a strong presence online, answering questions and encouraging gardeners in their endeavors via postings on garden and plant message boards. He generously shared his extensive knowledge gently and with wit as the moderator of the International Palm Society’s active PalmTalk message board. Bob was an accomplished pianist, a gifted photographer, and an enthusiastic film buff. He had finished writing the manuscript for the Timber Press Pocket Guide to Palms when he passed away unexpectedly.

Scott Zona grew up among the palms of South Florida and was smitten by them at an early age. For nearly 15 years, he was the palm biologist for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami. He has made field collections of palms from throughout the world and completed several important taxonomic monographs of ornamental palms. He is currently the curator of the Wertheim Conservatory at Florida International University.

Author of nearly 100 articles on palms, both popular and technical, Zona is also the co-editor of PALMS, the quarterly journal of the International Palm Society, an organization to which he has belonged for more than 30 years. He teaches and lectures all over the world about tropical plants, and grows palms and other tropical plants at his home in Miami.