Native Flora of Louisiana, featuring the beautiful botanical illustrations of Margaret Stones, is now on display in the Garden Library. Many thanks to Ruthie Frierson, who donated the folio-style book and invited Margaret Stones’s collaborator, Lowell Urbatsch, to sign the Garden Library’s copy.

Per LSU Press: Praised as one of the most accomplished botanical artists of the twentieth century, Margaret Stones  established a new standard for botanical illustration during her long career. In 1975, Louisiana State University chancellor Paul W. Murrill commissioned Stones to create a series of drawings of native Louisiana plants and described the outcome of that project as “a modern-day equivalent of John James Audubon’s Birds of America.” Decades after their completion, Stones’s drawings remain on display in museums and serve as an exceptional resource.

Drawn only from fresh plants gathered under the guidance of LSU professor Lowell Urbatsch, Stones’s detailed and captivating depictions remain a lasting and unprecedented study of the state’s natural beauty.

This folio edition offers a complete collection of Stones’s Louisiana illustrations on archival, acid-free paper. Paired with botanical descriptions by Urbatsch, these exceptional museum-quality reproductions of the artist’s watercolors provide intimate access to the precision and delicacy that define Stones’s mastery.