Botany For Beginners In Native Plant Identification

Explains the patterns method of plant identification, describing eight key patterns for recognizing more than 45,000 species of plants, and includes an illustrated reference guide to plant families.

Explains the patterns method of plant identification, describing seven key patterns for recognizing more than 45,000 species of plants, and includes an illustrated reference guide to plant families.

This book teaches readers how to identify plants--and their uses--within groups and families. Botany in a Day provides simple techniques for plant identification, plus line drawings that highlight family characteristics, and plant entries that discuss med

This book is divided into two primary sections. The first covers plant anatomy and the second covers plant taxonomy.

Practical Plant Identification is an essential guide to identifying flowering plant families (wild or cultivated) in the northern hemisphere. Details of plant structure and terminology accompany practical keys to identify 318 families into which flowering plants are divided. Specifically designed for practical use, the keys can easily be worked backwards for checking identifications. Containing descriptions of families and listings of the genera within, it also includes a section on further identification to generic and specific levels. A successor to the author's bestselling The Identification of Flowering Plant Families, this guide is updated, and retains the same concise user-friendly approach. Cullen skillfully leads the reader from restrictive disciplines of older taxonomy, into an era of increasing numbers of plant families defined by DNA analysis. Aimed primarily at students of botany and horticulture, this is a perfect introduction to plant identification for anyone interested in plant taxonomy.

Muenscher was an early Cornell botany professor known as the "Wizard of Weeds." This first update since 1950 of his classic volume on eastern North American botany updates the changing nomenclature--the bane of many students, amateurs, and professionals--applied by the International Botanical Congress. There are comprehensive and field-oriented keys to genera and species, and a systematic list of species in the keys. Includes the preface to the 1922 edition, a glossary, diagrammatic guide to terms (the text's only visuals), and a briefly annotated bibliography. Cope is also a Cornell U. botanist. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Did you know that the smell of sassafras blowing offshore convinced Columbus he was near land? Or that the American sycamore, which has the largest tree trunk in the eastern forest, can live for 500 to 600 years? Or that in the period before the American Revolution, patriots designated a sycamore tree in each colony as a "Liberty Tree" -- a meeting place for plotting against the British? These facts are just a few of thousands you'll find inBotanica North America, an encyclopedia of the wonderfully diverse North American native plants by noted Canadian garden writer Marjorie Harris. This charming compendium is filled with more than 420 entries that provide essential information on each plant's physical attributes, natural history, common uses, and ethnobotany. There are also fascinating, often surprising anecdotes about plants you won't find anywhere else. From the Eastern forest to the desert, this beautifully written volume roves across the continent exploring how climate and plant life have affected, aided, and inspired us, from the first Native Americans to North Americans living in the twenty-first century: "The lonely majesty of a wind-swept jack pine has inspired generations of poets and painters," Harris writes. "These trees endure in spite of terrible weather . . . a jack pine forest has a dense, closed canopy with an understory of cherry, blueberry, hazels, bracken, and sweet fern along with trailing arbutus." Comprehensive and engaging, Botanica North America is also filled with lush photographs of plants in their natural habitat and insightful quotes from a variety of gardening experts and amateurs, from naturalist Rachel Carson to famed conservationist John Muir. Here is a reference no gardener or environmentalist should be without.