Guide To Common Grasses

Grasses are among the most ubiquitous plants on the planet. They inhabit a wide geographic range and are found in a variety of natural habitats. The small parts of the grass flower and specialized terminology, however, can make identifying grasses a challenging endeavor. Sarah Chamberlain’s Field Guide to Grasses of the Mid-Atlantic makes identification simpler for everyone—regardless of their previous botanical knowledge. Featuring an easy-to-use dichotomous key, this is a user-friendly guide to more than 300 types of grasses found from the Blue Ridge Mountains and southern plains to the Appalachians and the Allegheny Plateau. Each major entry contains detailed species diagrams as well as common names, habitats, and distribution. The book’s opening sections outline the parts of grass flowers and describe stem, leaf, and sheath characteristics. With a wealth of illustrations, instructions on how to use the key, and a glossary of terms, Field Guide to Grasses of the Mid-Atlantic is an indispensable reference for naturalists and conservationists, botanists, land management professionals, and students and scholars of mid-Atlantic flora.

Covering 172 species of the most significant common grasses growing in Texas, this complete update of the now-classic Common Texas Grasses: An Illustrated Guide contains range maps and color images of the inflorescences and spikelets of each species along with the detailed, black-and-white illustrations found in the original volume. Identifying descriptive text, keys to genera and species, a checklist, and a glossary round out this standard field reference for botanists, students, and naturalists.

Once covered by wild grasses, America's heartland is by nature a grassland, populated with plants whose ecological importance, practical value, and subtle beauty we are only now beginning to comprehend. Of the 3,000 species of wild plants in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, in the heart of the heartland, only two of every ten are grasses, and in some prairies just one or two of these can account for 80 to 90 percent of the ground cover. It is these major wild grasses, the native and the naturalized, that this field guide covers, as well as some not found in such large numbers but nonetheless widespread and easily noticed. From the more familiar (like big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, buffalograss, sideoats grama, and blue grama) to the less recognized (such as ticklegrass, rice cutgrass, and prairie wedgegrass), from the weedy to the desirable, each of the seventy species profiled in these pages appears in full-color, its fundamental characteristics clearly identifiable by novice and expert alike: flowers and seed heads, leaf details with size comparisons, and whole mature plant pictures. Though of ever broadening interest--to ranchers, gardeners, naturalists, and restorers of prairies and native landscapes--grasses are notoriously tricky to identify. A number of features of this guide make the task considerably easier. A handy system of "finding lists," allows a user to navigate quickly to identification of an unknown grass. Descriptions, written in clear and easily understood terms, focus on the primary characteristics of each species and are accompanied by distribution maps. And an illustrated glossary, leaf comparison section, and table of grass flowering dates provide additional information and opportunities for recognizing and appreciating various species. Putting these plants into ecological and cultural context, botanist and grass specialist Iralee Barnard gives readers, whether curious amateur, passionate naturalist, or professional, a new way of understanding the grasses of America's prairies and plains, including their plant structures and adaptations, their natural history, ecological associations, and cultural importance.

A practical and expertly illustrated field guide to over one hundred grasses, sedges, and rushes "No one will be able to claim that the identification of grasses, sedges, and rushes, which are of fundamental importance both environmentally and economically, are simply 'too difficult' after they have learned to use this excellent guide."--Peter Raven, President Emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden This elegant and easy-to-use guide is an updated and amended revision of Lauren Brown's seminal Grasses: An Identification Guide, which was first published in 1979. While maintaining the spirit and goals of the original edition--a portable, straightforward, and user-friendly guide for naturalists and plant enthusiasts--the new edition features more than one hundred grasses, sedges, and rushes that are presented with line drawings and color photographs, concise descriptions, and details on the uses of various plants throughout history. In addition, the authors are careful to highlight the subtle differences in similar species to avoid confusion, as well as offering relevant notes on plant survival strategies, invasiveness, and how different plants fit within the broader ecological landscape. Devoid of technical jargon, this volume is an indispensable tool for those curious about the often-overlooked grasses, sedges, and rushes that surround us.

How to identify 135 of the most common species of North American grasses, sedges, and rushes, with their economic and ecological importance.