This field guide illustrates and describes ca. 20% of the recorded 1160 vascular plants of the department of Arequipa in Southern Peru. It aims to be a comprehensive field guide for tourists and locals.The first part of the book describes the vegetation of Arequipa. It gives an overview of the harsh conditions of south-peruvian ecosystems. Bone-dry deserts and high mountains with extreme temperature fluctuations challenges plant growth. Such ecosystmes demand adaptation by the inhabitants, especially by the plants, which can not escape their habitat. The second part of the book is dedicated to the plant species of the departement of Arequipa. With the illustrations and the description in this book, the reader should be able to recognize the plants in their habitat. Additionally it provides information about the use and the ecology of the described species.

Edgar Heim:Edgar Heim was born in Lima, Peru. He studied food engineer in Switzerland and has been working on that profession for more than 25 years, first as production manager, since 2007 as lecturer in operations and supply chain management at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Since his boyhood he was fascinated by nature, biodiversity and ecology. Botany and travelling are his beloved passions. Over the years he has collected a large amount of information about the vegetation around the world and accumulated more than 40'000 pictures of plants from different countries. Unfortunately many developing countries do not have any literature about the flora and their biodiversity. For his own sake he compiled his personal field guides and got a lot of compliments and encourragement while travelling. So he decided to publish the personal field guides. One of them is the "Flora and Vegetation of Bali indonesia", another one is the "Flora of Arequipa, Peru", several others are in progress. The author is convinced that knowledge of plants enhances environmental care. Only knowing people will love and care about the species living in their neighborhood. So he hopes to enhance environmental care with his booklets and contribute to global biodiversity conservation.