The Tommy Bahama island decorating style has brought the palm out of Victorian parlors and back into everyday decor.  If you’re into the look of the South Pacific, there’s a treasure trove of palm art you’ll want to see online at the Missouri Botanical Garden Library.

This book features beautiful landscape paintings of the palms in habitat, which will provide wonderful series of framed pictures or other series creations.

The Natural History of Palms took from1823 to 1850 to print in its entirety.  The volume features the palm species known in Brazil at that time.  This is an enormous archive with hundreds of images that vary considerably in their style and presentation.  Some like the example above are actual landscape paintings of the palm in habitat.  There are single plant illustrations, detailed structural studies and line drawings of seeds and other features.

The work was published in three volumes, so we’ve provided you with direct links to the illustration lists for each of them to make navigation a bit simpler.

Volume 1   http://www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/taxa.asp?relation=QK495F21M34182350V1

Volume 2  http://www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/taxa.asp?relation=QK495F21M34182350V2

Volume 3  http://www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/taxa.asp?relation=QK495F21M34182350V3

It is important to realize that the classification of palms and their botanical names have changed considerably since this book was published.  Many will be in new genera now so you’ll have to make your selection on the image itself rather than its botanical name in the archive.

This is a good example of the detailed structural illustrations of palm flowers and the development of a palm frond.  There are some truly unique pictures in these volumes that feature stems and roots and a variety of little known palm reproductive structures.

5 Craft Ideas for using palm illustrations for Island style decor and crafts: 

• Print and frame for island style room decor.
• Make a palm pillow using iron on transfer.
• Create an exotic greeting card.
• Decorate a tropical vacation scrapbook page.
• Decoupage onto a box or trunk.

Explore more botanical archives and great craft ideas at MoPlants.com Digital Crafts Central:  http://www.moplants.com/digital_crafts/index.php