Vascular Plant Families

From the coeditor of "Authors of Plant Names" comes his newest reference for plant taxonomists and other plant scientists.

Plants of the World is the first book to systematically explore every vascular plant family on earth—more than four hundred and fifty of them—organized in a modern phylogenetic order. Detailed entries for each family include descriptions, distribution, evolutionary relationships, and fascinating information on economic uses of plants and etymology of their names. All entries are also copiously illustrated in full color with more than 2,500 stunning photographs. A collaboration among three celebrated botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Plants of the World is authoritative, comprehensive, and beautiful. Covering everything from ferns to angiosperms, it will be an essential resource for practicing botanists, horticulturists, and nascent green thumbs alike.

This volume covers the orders Boraginales, Garryales and Solanales (except Convolvulaceae) of the Lamiids (Asterids I) as well as three unplaced families of that clade, i.e. Vahliaceae, Icacinaceae and Metteniusaceae, and the orders Aquifoliales, Escalloniales, Bruniales, Dipsacales and Paracryphiales of the Campanulids (Asterids II). It is the first of two final volumes to (almost) complete the treatment of the Asterids, which started with Vol. VI (Cornales, Ericales, 2004) and continued with Vol. VII (Lamiales, 2004) and Vol. VIII (Asterales, 2007). The present volume provides descriptions for 35 families and altogether 340 genera, including three genera of somewhat uncertain family affiliation. It provides identification keys for families within orders and for all genera within families, and also discusses probable phylogenetic relationships. The wealth of information contained in this volume makes it an indispensable source for all those working in pure and applied plant sciences.

This volume, the tenth in the series, comprises modern treatments for the families and genera of the eudicot orders Sapindales and Cucurbitales. The circumscription of the orders, families and genera conforms to the most recent systematic studies. The family treatments include descriptions of the families and the genera, genera classification keys, discussions of relationships and data on their morphology, reproductive biology, distribution, ecology and economic importance. Sapindales and Cucurbitales, as understood in this volume, comprise 16 families with 637 genera and roughly 9,240 species. Sapindales include large tropical and southern temperate tree families such as the Anacardiaceae, Sapindaceae (these in the modern circumscription, which includes Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae), Meliaceae and Rutaceae, which have long been considered to be closely related. Cucurbitales represent a relatively new ordinal concept; apart from some small woody groups, the order contains two large families, Cucurbitaceae and Begoniaceae, which are predominantly, and likely basically, herbaceous. A detailed treatment of the tropical and southern temperate woody family Myrtaceae (itself comprising 142 genera and 6,700 species) is an addendum to the treatment of the Myrtales in Vol. IX of this series.

This volume contains a complete systematic treatment of the flowering plant order Asterales. This comprises 12 families with approx. 1,720 genera and about 26,300 species. Identification keys are provided for all genera, and likely phylogenetic relationships are discussed extensively. The wealth of information contained in this volume makes it an indispensable source for all working in the fields of pure and applied plant sciences.

This volume is the outcome of a modern phylogenetic analysis of the grass family based on multiple sources of data, in particular molecular systematic studies resulting from a concerted effort by researchers worldwide, including the author. In the classification given here grasses are subdivided into 12 subfamilies with 29 tribes and over 700 genera. The keys and descriptions for the taxa above the rank of genus are hierarchical, i.e. they concentrate upon characters which are deemed to be synapomorphic for the lineages and may be applicable only to their early-diverging taxa. Beyond the treatment of phylogeny and formal taxonomy, the author presents a wide range of information on topics such as the structural characters of grasses, their related functional aspects and particularly corresponding findings from the field of developmental genetics with inclusion of genes and gene products instrumental in the shaping of morphological traits (in which this volume appears unique within this book series); further topics addressed include the contentious time of origin of the family, the emigration of the originally shade-loving grasses out of the forest to form vast grasslands accompanied by the switch of many members to C4 photosynthesis, the impact of herbivores on the silica cycle housed in the grass phytoliths, the reproductive biology of grasses, the domestication of major cereal crops and the affinities of grasses within the newly circumscribed order Poales. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge on the Poaceae (Gramineae), with major implications in terms of key scientific challenges awaiting future research. It certainly will be of interest both for the grass specialist and also the generalist seeking state-of-the-art information on the diversity of grasses, the most ecologically and economically important of the families of flowering plants.