Flora Of North America Volume 1 Introduction

To be published in 14 volumes over the next 12 years, this long-awaited synoptic compendium represents the first and only comprehensive taxonomic guide to the extraordinary diversity of plant life blanketing our continent north of Mexico--including Greenland and the St. Pierre and Miquelon islands. The collaborative effort of more than 30 major U.S. and Canadian botanical institutions, it revises and synthesizes literally thousands of floristic monographs and regional floras published over the last three centuries. But more than that, it distills the original herbarium, laboratory, and field work of hundreds of contributors--all of them leading botanists and taxonomic authorities who have joined forces to develop this century's premier tool for identifying, understanding, and conserving North America's priceless floristic heritage. Concise, easy to use, and beautifully bound and illustrated, Flora of North America is an indispensable working resource for botanists, conservationists, ecologists, agronomists, foresters, range and land managers, horticulturists,--anyone with a serious interest in the distribution, habitat, morphology, and survival of the wide-ranging plant life around us. Each of its taxonomic volumes brings together the full spectrum of critical botanical data, from basic descriptions to chromosome numbers. The entries also correct erroneous information, qualify misapplied variant names, and note known hybridizations. Findings derived from recent experimental work and from numerical taxonomy are incorporated, and to assure accuracy, these data have been extensively reviewed and tested by cooperating taxonomic specialists. Volume 1 consists of a series of introductory essays by nearly two dozen noted botanical authorities. Among the topics covered are the transformation of North American plant life since the end of the Mesozoic era some 70 million years ago; the influence of geographic, climatic, and soil factors; the impact of human cultivation; great naturalists and their contributions to botany and floristics since the age of Columbus; and approaches to plant classification, with particular attention to the evolutionarily unique pteridophytes and gymnosperms that are covered in Volume 2.

Vol.1 includes a list of flowering plant families (p.299-316) and a concordance of family names accepted by Cronquist, Takhtajan, and Thorne. Vol.2+ include distribution maps for each species.

FNA presents for the first time, in one published reference source, information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.

Flora of North America Volume 7 will be the eighth of 19 volumes on dicotyledons to be published in the Flora of North America North of Mexico series. It treats 923 species classified among 125 genera in 11 families; the larger families covered in Volume 7 include Brassicaceae (Mustard family), Cleomaceae (Spiderflower family), and Salicaceae (Willow family). The endemic family Limnanthaceae with eight species classified in two genera (Floerkea and Limnanthes) is also included in the volume. Each genus has representative species illustrated with a line drawing that, in combination with keys and descriptions, will facilitate identifications of these groups of plants. Some of the genera treated in this volume with the most species in the flora area include: Boechera, Cardamine, Draba, Lepidium, Physaria, and Streptanthus (Brassicaceae) with 109, 39, 121, 42, 88, and 35 species, respectively; plus Salix and Populus (Salicaceae) with 113 and 8 species, respectively. Three families are represented in the flora each with a single introduced species: Caricaceae (Papaya family), Moringaceae (Drumstick tree family), and Tropaeolaceae (Nasturtium family). Standing Orders To receive all Flora of North America titles automatically as they are published, and at a 25% discount, please submit your request for a standing order (ISBN 978-0-19-521735-3) to [email protected].

This second volume of the magnificent compendium exhaustively describes and classifys the ferns, fern allies, and gymnosperms of North America. Covering over two dozen fern and half a dozen gymnosperm families, they survey fern species of both ecological and horticultural importance and review such gymnosperm taxa as the conifers (the dominant trees in many forests as well as important timber plants) and cycads, which display significant evolutionary features. In all, the volume assembles 509 species of ferns and fern allies and infraspecific taxa in 70 genera.

Thorough, detailed dendrological coverage of North American trees, shrubs, and vines This comprehensive field guide/procedural handbook provides extraordinarily detailed descriptions of trees, shrubs, and vines of North American forests. Written at a more detailed level than most field guides, it introduces basic taxonomic concepts and methods and explains the rationale behind taxonomic classification systems. Entries include Latin and common names for each species as well as physical descriptions at various levels of maturity and for different seasons. Also noted are regional and state distributions, soil conditions, cover types, shade tolerances, and common diseases and pests. This remarkably thorough and reliable reference includes: * Detailed descriptions of more than 800 species * Hundreds of additional varieties and cultivars * 550 exquisitely detailed line drawings of leaves, bark, fruit, and seeds * Broad coverage of commercial and noncommercial species * An emphasis on the silvical features of each species * A unique section on forest community ecology and cover types * The new North American Classification System Well-organized and practical, this authoritative guide is an immensely useful resource for foresters, wildlife and field biologists, naturalists, environmental scientists, and land managers.

FNA presents for the first time, in one published reference source, information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.

FNA presents for the first time, in one published reference source, information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.