A botanical reference book (not only) for planters, tropical merchants, and research travelers. Tropical plants such as the strangler fig, the priest palm, the orchid tree, or even the exotic carnivorous plant are becoming increasingly popular in Europe. In earlier years, they were mostly grown as tropical houseplants in greenhouses. Nowadays, it is possible to plant many of these species in an apartment or garden. Some have been cultivated and bred to adapt to European climatic conditions, allowing them to survive the winter unharmed. Tourists often bring back seeds from their vacations and grow the germinated seedlings. Within the tropics, the humid equatorial regions are distinguished from the seasonally dry or dry tropics that extend towards the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which exhibit different characteristics.