This is not a serious botany book that you can find anywhere: it is a feast for the eyes.

And it's also a voyage of discovery that begins and stays in Malta.

Johan Siggesson, the author, comes from Sweden and is a renowned nature photographer who has won many awards photographing nature and wildlife all over the world.

He now lives in Malta and when the pandemic struck it forced him to cancel all travel plans.

But instead of, as he puts it, hiding under a blanket until the pandemic blew over, he decided to make the best of it.

Now, as we all know, Malta is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world and is not thought of in terms of nature, especially with all the development that's going on.

So imagine his surprise when he found out that there are no less than 37 species of wild orchids, which can be found around the Maltese countryside.

Many species are extremely rare and only one or two specimens exist.

For instance, this book records the first sighting of the Tongue orchid in Malta in over a century.

Another rarity is the Naked man orchid.

The author was helped by friends and acquaintances to find the orchids but the photographs are all his.

He warns the reader that the purpose of the book is to showcase the beauty that can be found around us if only we take the time to stop and look.

As a result, the book is a riot of colour. The orchids are portrayed from near, at ground level (for Malta's orchids grow at ground level).

The orchid season starts a few weeks after the first heavy rains in September/October.

Following Malta's long, scorching summer the rains bring about the first orchids of the season, the Autumn lady's tresses.

Then all the way to May, different species emerge in various locations.

The future of Maltese orchids does not look very promising, even though the orchids are hardy plants. The ongoing massive destruction of natural habitats is a constant threat.

The family of orchids is a relatively young family of plants - 80 million years - but it has in this short time developed into one of the largest, hardiest and most adaptable plant families in the world.

There are roughly twice as many species of orchids than all the world's mammals and birds combined.

The vast majority of the more than 25,000 species of orchids in the world grow on trees or cling to rock surfaces in the wild. In Malta, however, they all grow on the ground.

This poses considerable difficulties for the photographer who wants to photograph a particular orchid from close up - it may mean crawling between rocks, thorns and boulders.

And the right conditions must be there - the right amount of sun, the right angle, and so on.

Sometimes a wide angle would be preferable to a close-up to show the plant in its wider context.

It is also instructive to study the orchid when it is being visited by a guest - be this a bee or a bumblebee or even a butterfly, but actually any flying insect.

Their visit is very important - pollination.

Mesmerisingly the book explains how different orchids use different methods to attract pollinators.

Some offer nectar, some provide shelter from unfavourable conditions.

Some offer sex - in this case the orchid produces a flower that looks like the female insect of a specific species to attract an unwary male.

Frustrated, the male moves on to the next female and thus pollination takes place.

Sometimes the name they have been given over the years seem to have come from someone with sex on the mind - Autumn lady's tresses, Naked man orchid, Tongue orchid, Mirror orchid.