front cover of The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants
The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants
Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox
University of Chicago Press, 2023
A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated reference for all gardeners passionate about native plants and prairie restoration.
 
The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants is the one-stop compendium for all gardeners aspiring to use native prairie plants in their gardens. Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox—two renowned prairie gardeners—compile more than four decades’ worth of research to offer a wide-ranging and definitive reference for starting and maintaining prairie and meadow gardens and restorations. Alongside detailed synopses of plant life cycles, meticulous range maps, and sweeping overviews of natural history, Diboll and Cox also include photographs of 148 prairie plants in every stage of development, from seedling to seedhead. North America’s grasslands once stretched from the Blue Ridge to the Rocky Mountains, and from Texas to Manitoba, blanketing the mid-continent with ecologically important, garden-worthy, native species. This book provides all the inspiration and information necessary for eager native planters from across the country to welcome these plants back to their landscapes. The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants is a must-have reference for gardeners, restorationists, and every flora fan with a passion for native plants, prairies and meadows. 
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Gardening with Perennials
Lessons from Chicago's Lurie Garden
Noel Kingsbury
University of Chicago Press, 2014
For gardeners, inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. Perennial enthusiasts around the world might be surprised to find their muse in the middle of a bustling city. Lurie Garden, a nearly three-acre botanic garden in the center of Chicago’s lakefront in Millennium Park, is a veritable living lab of prairie perennials, with a rich array of plant life that both fascinates and educates as it grows, flowers, and dies back throughout the year. Thousands of visitors pass through each year, and many leave wondering how they might bring some of the magic of Lurie to their own home gardens.

With Gardening with Perennials horticulturalist and garden writer Noel Kingsbury brings a global perspective to the Lurie oasis through a wonderful introduction to the world of perennial gardening. He shows how perennials have much to offer home gardeners, from sustainability—perennials require less water than their annual counterparts—to continuity, as perennials’ longevity makes them a dependable staple.

Kingsbury also explains why Lurie is a perfect case study for gardeners of all locales. The plants represented in this urban oasis were chosen specifically for reliability and longevity. The majority will thrive on a wide range of soils and across a wide climatic range. These plants also can thrive with minimal irrigation, and without fertilizers or chemical control of pests and diseases. Including a special emphasis on plants that flourish in sun, and featuring many species native to the Midwest region, Gardening with Perennials will inspire gardeners around the world to try Chicago-style sustainable gardening.
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The Gardens of Emily Dickinson
Judith Farrwith a chapter by Louise Carter
Harvard University Press, 2005

In this first substantial study of Emily Dickinson's devotion to flowers and gardening, Judith Farr seeks to join both poet and gardener in one creative personality. She casts new light on Dickinson's temperament, her aesthetic sensibility, and her vision of the relationship between art and nature, revealing that the successful gardener's intimate understanding of horticulture helped shape the poet's choice of metaphors for every experience: love and hate, wickedness and virtue, death and immortality.

Gardening, Farr demonstrates, was Dickinson's other vocation, more public than the making of poems but analogous and closely related to it. Over a third of Dickinson's poems and nearly half of her letters allude with passionate intensity to her favorite wildflowers, to traditional blooms like the daisy or gentian, and to the exotic gardenias and jasmines of her conservatory. Each flower was assigned specific connotations by the nineteenth century floral dictionaries she knew; thus, Dickinson's association of various flowers with friends, family, and lovers, like the tropes and scenarios presented in her poems, establishes her participation in the literary and painterly culture of her day. A chapter, "Gardening with Emily Dickinson" by Louise Carter, cites family letters and memoirs to conjecture the kinds of flowers contained in the poet's indoor and outdoor gardens. Carter hypothesizes Dickinson's methods of gardening, explaining how one might grow her flowers today.

Beautifully illustrated and written with verve, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson will provide pleasure and insight to a wide audience of scholars, admirers of Dickinson's poetry, and garden lovers everywhere.

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Genera Palmarum
The Evolution and Classification of Palms
John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline Harley, and Carl Lewis
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2008
Palms are iconic in our culture, representing everything from victory to vacation. And for nearly three decades, Genera Palmarum has been the stand-out reference for anyone interested in this economically and horticulturally important plant family. Now, this award-winning book has been completely updated and revised, bringing it in line with new research and newly discovered genera.
In this new edition, genus treatments now include complete descriptions, nomenclature, and etymology, as well as discussions of diversity, distribution, phylogeny, morphology, uses and ecology. All genera are fully illustrated with full-color photographs alongside analytic illustrations, distribution maps, and even electron micrographs of pollen. An updated introduction provides readers with essential background information via authoratative essays on the structure of palms, their chemistry, their history, and much more.
Fully revised for a new generation of researchers and gardening enthusiasts, Genera Palmarum continues to be the gold-standard reference work on palms.
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Generic Tree Flora of Madagascar
George E. Schatz
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2001
This is a practical field manual for the identification of the 500 genera of native and naturalized Malagasy trees. Identification keys emphasise vegetative and gross morphological features. All genera are provided with full descriptions, distribution information, key characteristics, up-to-date taxonomic references and over 3,000 Malagasy vernacular names, and almost all are illustrated.
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Gentry's Rio Mayo Plants
The Tropical Deciduous Forest and Environs of Northwest Mexico
Revised and Edited by Paul S. Martin, David Yetman, Mark Fishbein, Phil Jenkins, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Rebecca K. Wilson
University of Arizona Press, 1998
The Río Mayo region of northwestern Mexico is a major geographic area whose natural history remains poorly known to outsiders. Lying in a region where desert and tropical, northern and southern, and continental and coastal species converge, it boasts an abundance of flora first documented by Howard Scott Gentry in 1942 in a book now widely regarded as a classic of botanical literature. This new book updates and amends Gentry's Río Mayo Plants. Undertaken with Gentry's support and participation before his death in 1993, it reproduces the original text, which appears here with annotations, and contains information on over 2,800 taxa—more than twice the 1,200 species first described by Gentry. The annotated list of plants includes information on distribution, habitat, appearance, common names, and indigenous uses. A new introduction provides historical background and a review of geography and vegetation. It also describes changes to the land and river wrought by agricultural development, expanded grazing, and lumbering. Throughout the text, the authors have endeavored to provide information on Río Mayo vegetation while emphasizing local knowledge and use of plants, to preserve Gentry's field-oriented focus, and to present botanical information with Gentry's exuberance and style. Río Mayo Plants has long stood as a book that displays a scientist's love of the English language, his fondness for native peoples, and his eye for beauty in nature. This updating of that work fills a gap in the botanical literature of this portion of North America and will be useful not only for botanists but also for biogeographers, taxonomists, land managers, and conservationists.
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The Genus Agapanthus
Graham Duncan
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2021
An in-depth guide to a plant group prized for its vivid blue hue.
 
Renowned for its stunning blue flowers, agapanthus—sometimes known as the blue lily or lily of the Nile—is a group of rhizomatous plants native to southern Africa. First cultivated in the Netherlands in the late seventeenth century, it rose to prominence as a conservatory plant in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries after certain varieties were found to be hardy enough to withstand the colder climate of the British Isles. Graham Duncan’s The Genus Agapanthus provides both a revised classification of this plant group and a superbly illustrated celebration of their unique beauty. Featuring new watercolors from South African artist Elbe Joubert and color photographs showing the species in their spectacular and varied natural habitats, the book also highlights a selection of more than 150 of the most notable agapanthus cultivars from growers across Europe, Africa, and Oceania. The agapanthus’s natural history is spotlighted as well, with comprehensive descriptions of each species, maps of their global distribution, and information on how to successfully cultivate, propagate, and care for them. This book’s blend of science, horticulture, and art makes it essential for all varieties of plant lovers.
 
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The Genus Betula
A Taxonomic Revision of Birches
Kenneth Ashburner and Hugh McAllister
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2013
The stunning Betula, or birch trees, are notoriously difficult to identify despite being one of the major contributors to the beautiful fall foliage famous in eastern North America. With many wrongly named birches appearing in nurseries and arboreta, this new book, the first ever written on the genus, is an important and much-needed work.

The Genus Betula covers all known birches found in North America, Europe, and Asia, along with keys for accurate identification. Chapters include a look at the breeding, cultivation, conservation, and morphology of all species, including several little-known species wonderful for garden and landscape use. The authors present previously unpublished data on recent molecular work and fossils, providing a cytotaxonomic and phylogeographic revision of the Betula genus. The book is accompanied by exquisite specimens of botanical art, including full-color paintings by Josephine Hague, making it a valuable tool for arboriculturists as well as professional and amateur gardeners.
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The Genus Erythronium
Chris Clennet
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2014
The Erythronium is a seemingly delicate perennial with a decidedly wild touch. Its recurved petals are often described as “tooth-like” and at times seem to be caught in a dramatic dive toward the ground. Long appreciated for their bright reds and yellows, their easy cultivation, and even their use as a food, these woodland plants are finding growing popularity in North America. The Genus Erythronium is the first dedicated monograph on the plant and will be the authority for botanists, gardeners, growers, and breeders everywhere.

The Genus Erythronium 
details all twenty-nine currently identified species, all based on the most current research, including brand-new information on morphology and DNA. Captivating botanical illustrations and photographs fill the book and an extensive key allows easy identification of each species. Chapters covering phytogeography, morphology, cultivation, and conservation, as well as guidance on rating plants, come together to make this an essential, comprehensive volume.
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The Genus Lachenalia
Graham Duncan
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2012
This is the first complete and illustrated monograph of the genus Lachenalia, a horticulturally important and botanically diverse plant group. The relatively small number of Lachenalia species that have been cultivated worldwide are known for their exceptionally showy blooms and fascinating leaves, and for emitting distinctive aromas ranging from spicy to sweet to the distinct scent of coconut, in the case of one species. The horticultural potential of the genus has yet to be fully realized, and many more species await introduction into cultivation. All species in this volume are described, classified, and illustrated, and are accompanied by detailed information on their history, morphology, phylogeny, phytogeography, pollination biology, cultivation, and propagation.
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The Genus Lentinus
A World Monograph
David N. Pegler
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1983
A systematic account of recognised species, fully illustrated with 65 line drawings.
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The Genus Lesquerella (Cruciferae) in North America
Reed C. Rollins and Elizabeth A. Shaw
Harvard University Press, 1973
The need for a new monographic treatment of the genus Lesquerella (mustard family) has been evident for many years. Authors Reed Rollins and Elizabeth Shaw summarize three decades of field, greenhouse, and herbarium research in this detailed study of the North American species of the genus, including L. arctica. They cover sixty-nine species and twenty-nine infraspecific taxa that range in occurrence from the arctic to southern Mexico. Nearly sixty photographs and maps document their text.
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The Genus Macaranga - a Prodromus
Timothy C. Whitmore
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2008
Macaranga is a genus in the family Euphorbiaceae, comprising trees, treelets and some lianas - many of which are conspicuous large-leafed pioneers of disturbed habitats. There are 257 species, of which 21 are newly described in this work. Although at its most diverse in South East Asia and New Guinea, the genus also occurs in Africa and Madagascar, continental Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australia. The book allows for ready identification of all species via both regional keys and keys within informal species groups. Twenty-five species are illustrated.
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The Genus Meconopsis
Blue poppies and their relatives
Christopher Grey-Wilson
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015
The Himalayan Blue Poppy is a bit of a perennial diva. Spotted in the wild, it turns heads and catches reverent attention, but it is also notoriously fickle, requiring careful cultivation and often refusing to flourish in most climates below 10,000 feet. Together with the other colorful species of the Meconopsis genus, they are some of the most distinctive and most sought-after members of the poppy family.
The Genus Meconopsis is the first major revision of the genus since 1934 and the only monograph on the genus in existence. This fully revised text incorporates the discovery of nearly thirty new species with decades of new scholarship. The book is extensively illustrated with striking color photographs and botanical paintings. Species descriptions that include habitat and variation within the genus, as well as detailed distribution maps, make this ideal for botanists, horticulturalists, and gardeners alike.
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Genus Sorbus
mountain ash and other rowans
Hugh McAllister
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2005
Varying from tiny mountain shrubs to tall trees, there is a rowan suitable for every garden. Dr McAllister has 25 years of knowledge and experience in growing rowans, and in this book describes over 60 visually striking species, including recent introductions from China. The re-appraisal of classification, evolutionary history, ecology and conservation will bring botanists up to date on latest research, while sections on propagation and cultivation will prove invaluable to gardeners, nurserymen and horticulturists. Eighteen full-page paintings by the renowned artist Josephine Hague, and over 100 colour photographs, illustrate the text.
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The Genus Tulipa
Tulips of the World
Diana Everett
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2013
Beloved for their eye-popping colors that often mark the arrival of spring, tulips are a perennial favorite. The Genus Tulipa combines the latest scientific research with beautiful and useful illustrations, creating a visual delight as fascinating as the flowers themselves. Each species is fully illustrated with botanical paintings, color photographs of the plants in habitat, and distribution maps. In addition, the experts of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, lend their prowess to chapters on everything from cultivation to classification. Checklists of tulip species and their world-wide synonyms, nursery and buying information, and a glossary with diagrams round out this comprehensive guide.
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Genus Utricularia
a taxonomic monograph
P. G. Taylor
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1989
The definitive monograph on these intriguing aquatic carnivorous plants. Each of the 214 species described is superbly illustrated with a full-page line drawing.
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Gifted Earth
The Ethnobotany of the Quinault and Neighboring Tribes
Douglas Deur
Oregon State University Press, 2022
Published in cooperation with the Quinault Indian Nation

Gifted Earth features traditional Native American plant knowledge, detailing the use of plants for food, medicines, and materials. It presents a rich and living tradition of plant use within the Quinault Indian Nation in a volume collaboratively developed and endorsed by that tribe.

The Quinault Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state is a diverse tribal community, embodying the traditional knowledge of tribes along the entire Pacific Northwest coast. Its membership consists of descendants of many tribes—from the northwestern Olympic Peninsula to the northern Oregon coast—including the Quinault, but also many others who were relocated to the reservation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Individuals descended from these tribal communities, including Chinook, Chehalis, Hoh, Quileute, Queets, Cowlitz, Tillamook, Clatsop, and others, have contributed to Gifted Earth, giving it remarkable breadth and representation.

A celebration of enduring Native American knowledge, this book will help non-specialists as they discover the potential of the region’s wild plants, learning how to identify, gather, and use many of the plants that they encounter in the Northwestern landscape. Part ethnobotanical guide and part “how-to” manual, Gifted Earth also prepares plant users for the minor hazards and pitfalls that accompany their quest—from how to avoid accidentally eating a bug hidden within a salal berry to how to prevent blisters when peeling the tender stalks of cow parsnip.

As beautiful as it is informative, Gifted Earth sets the standard for a new generation of ethnobotanical guides informed by the values, vision, and voice of Native American communities eager to promote a sustainable, balanced relationship between plant users and the rich plant communities of traditional tribal lands.
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Gleason's Plants of Michigan
A Field Guide
Revised by Richard K. Rabeler
University of Michigan Press, 1998

“For every plant enthusiast in the Great Lakes State, and . . . in the adjoining ones as well.”
—John J. Pipoly III, SIDA

“A very handy field guide . . . this book will be of use to anyone in northeastern North America.”
—C. Barre Hellquist, Rhodora

“It can be used to identify most of the plants . . . in Michigan and adjacent areas.”
—James E. Eckenwalder, Wildflower

Gleason’s Plants of Michigan is a major revision and expansion of The Plants of Michigan by Henry A. Gleason—the 1918 classic field guide to the flowering plants and trees found in Michigan, neighboring Great Lakes States, and southern Ontario. Richard K. Rabeler has completely updated the family descriptions and added easy-to-use keys. Information on habitats and geographical distribution is now included as well as a comprehensive index of plant names, an illustrated section on terminology, a glossary, and an introduction to botany in Michigan.

Gleason’s Plants of Michigan will be useful to naturalists, environmental specialists, botanists, and everyone who loves the wildflowers and native flora of Michigan and the surrounding areas.

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A Glossary of Mycology
Revised Edition
Walter Snell and Esther A. Dick
Harvard University Press, 1971

Upon its publication in 1957 A Glossary of Mycology was acclaimed by scientific and medical journals throughout the United States and Britain. The International Record of Medicine called it "a valuable reference book for every mycologist." Antibiotics and Chemotherapy recommended it as essential for all scientific libraries. The Bryologist said, "The authors are to be congratulated upon the wealth of information . . . the book is highly recommended in every respect."

Nearly 7000 terms--technical terms and their derivations; common or popular, vernacular, and obsolete terms; terms used in the field of medical mycology and antibiotics; names of the originators of terms; folklore terms; and color terms--were covered by the original edition. Also included were terms which, though not strictly mycological, occur frequently in literature of particular interest to mycologists.

This revision brings the work up to date with the considerable developments in the field since its first publication. Nearly 350 terms have been added, and new definitions for many of the original terms supplied. Excellent diagrammatic line drawings by Henry A. C. Jackson illustrate 191 of the terms.

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The Golden Age of Botanical Art
Martyn Rix
University of Chicago Press, 2012
The seventeenth century heralded a golden age of exploration, as intrepid travelers sailed around the world to gain firsthand knowledge of previously unknown continents. These explorers also collected the world’s most beautiful flora, and often their findings were recorded for posterity by talented professional artists. The Golden Age of Botanical Art tells the story of these exciting plant-hunting journeys and marries it with full-color reproductions of the stunning artwork they produced. Covering work through the nineteenth century, this lavishly illustrated book offers readers a look at 250 rare or unpublished images by some of the world’s most important botanical artists.
            Truly global in its scope, The Golden Age of Botanical Art features work by artists from Europe, China, and India, recording plants from places as disparate as Africa and South America. Martyn Rix has compiled the stories and art not only of well-known figures—such as Leonardo da Vinci and the artists of Empress Josephine Bonaparte—but also of those adventurous botanists and painters whose  names and work have been forgotten. A celebration of both extraordinarily beautiful plant life and the globe-trotting men and women who found and recorded it, The Golden Age of Botanical Art will enchant gardeners and art lovers alike.
 

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Grasses
Bromus to Paspalum, Second Edition
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
Southern Illinois University Press, 2002

Since the publication of the first edition of Grasses: Bromus to Paspalumin 1972, twenty-two additional taxa of grasses have been discovered in Illinois that are properly placed in this volume. In addition, nu­merous nomenclatural changes have occurred for plants previously discovered, and many distributional records have been added. New keys have been pre­pared for each genus where additional species from Illinois are known. For new species, full-page illustra­tions are provided. This second edition updates the status of Illinois grasses. The book features 263 fig­ures from the first edition plus 21 new figures for this edition by Paul W. Nelson.

Genera of grasses included in this work are Aegilops, Agropyron, Agrostis, Aira, Alopecurus, Anthoxanthum, Avena, Beckmannia, Briza, Bromus, Calamagrostis, Cinna, Dactylis, Deschampsia, Elyhordeum, Elymus, Elytrigia, Festuca, Hierochloe, Holcus, Hordeum, Koeleria, Lolium, Milium, Paspalum, Pennisetum, Phalaris, Phleum, Poa, Puccinellia, Sclerochloa, Secale, Sphenopholis, Torreyochloa, Triti­cum, and Vulpia.

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Grasses of the Intermountain Region
Laurel K. Anderton and Mary E. Barkworth
Utah State University Press, 2009
Grasses of the Intermountain Region is a modification of the two grass volumes of the Flora of North America (FNA). It is designed for identifying members of the Poaceae in the region between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, and is intended for use by botanists working with the grasses in this intermountain region of North America. The reduction in number of taxa included from FNA has reduced the length of the keys and made it possible to include, in a single volume, descriptions and illustrations for all taxa treated as well as provide distribution maps for species that are established in the area. Another difference from the FNA volumes is that the maps in this volume show only records from IMR and adjacent areas rather than the full North America range of the taxa.
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Grasses of the Northeast
A Manual of the Grasses of New England and Adjacent New York
Dennis W. Magee
University of Massachusetts Press, 2022
This book is designed to serve as a reference work, classroom textbook, and field manual for botanists, naturalists, and students interested in learning to identify and learn about the distinguishing features of grasses of the northeastern United States. Included are more than 380 species of grasses that have been documented as occurring in the region. The volume contains 246 range maps and 269 line drawings that clarify descriptions used in the keys and illustrate characteristics of the various kinds of grasses. Dennis W. Magee also provides a description of each genus and species along with synonyms and habitats. For anyone interested in an up-to-date treatment of the grasses of greater New England, this volume will be an invaluable resource. It is the only comprehensive technical guide devoted exclusively to the grasses of this region and presents a wealth of information in a precise, clear format.

The geographic scope of the work extends from the Canadian border south through Long Island and west to the Hudson River. But given the considerable overlap with the grass flora to the adjacent north, south, and west, the book will also be useful beyond New England and the bordering New York counties.

The volume includes an illustrated glossary of essential terms and concepts and a "how to use this manual" section. A CD-ROM with a multiple-entry identification guide, and hundreds of accompanying photographic images of individual species, is provided in a sleeve inside the back cover of the book.
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Grasses of Wisconsin
The Taxonomy, Ecology, and Distribution of the Gramineae Growing in the State without Cultivation
Norman C. Fassett
University of Wisconsin Press, 1997
The definitive study of grasses, whether native or non-native, growing in the wild in Wisconsin. Includes meticulous descriptions, techniques, maps, and illustrations for locating and identifying these grasses, expert analysis, and a detailed glossary and index.
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Grasses
Panicum to Danthonia, Second Edition
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
Southern Illinois University Press, 2001

Since the publication of the first edition of Grasses: Panicum to Danthonia in 1973, twenty additional taxa of grasses have been discovered in Illinois that are properly placed in this volume. In addition, numerous nomenclatural changes have occurred for plants already known from the state, and many distributional records have been added. This second edition updates the status of grasses in Illinois. Paul W. Nelson has provided illustrations for all of the additions.

Because the nature of grass structures is generally so different from that of other flowering plants, a special terminology is applied to them. In his introduction, Robert H. Mohlenbrock cites these terms, with descriptions that make the identification of unknown specimens possible. Mohlenbrock’s division of the grass family into subfamilies and tribes is a major departure from the sequence usually found in most floristic works in North America.

Synonyms that have been applied to species in the northeastern United States are given under each species. A description based primarily on Illinois material covers the more important features of the species. The common names—Paflic Grass, Billion Dollar Grass or Japanese Millett, Thread Love Grass, and Goose Grass—are the ones used locally in the state. The habitat designation and dot maps showing county distribution of each grass are provided only for grasses in Illinois, but the overall range for each species is also given.

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Grasses, Pods, Vines, Weeds
Decorating with Texas Naturals
Quentin Steitz
University of Texas Press, 1987

Purple three-awn.
Tree of heaven.
Alamo vine.
Narrowleaf cattail.

These exotic and fanciful names conjure up visions of lush foliage, colorful grasses, and dense plant life. They are, in fact, names of native and naturalized Texas plants—grasses, pods, vines, and weeds. Lovely and all-too-often overlooked in nature, they become ornamental delights when used imaginatively and decoratively.

Grasses, Pods, Vines, Weeds introduces 44 of Texas' most common and important naturals. Quentin Steitz shows how to recognize them and discover their aesthetic wealth. By taking the reader through all of the steps involved in utilizing naturals—from harvest to design—her book becomes an important tool for floral and landscape designers, decorators, horticulturalists, home gardeners, botanists: all those people who enjoy hands-on experience with Texas' vast array of native and naturalized plants.

The book presents clear and concise descriptions of many Texas naturals, accompanied by approximately 150 full-color photographs showing each in one or more stages of growth and also in a design. The reader can see the plant as it looks not only in the wild but also in an arrangement. The author offers techniques on how the species can be prepared for display, discussing drying and arranging. And a chapter on cultivation and conservation suggests to outdoor enthusiasts species they can grow for decorative natural materials as well as conserve and appreciate in the wild.

Grasses, Pods, Vines,Weeds is enhanced by flora selected, collected, prepared, and dried by the author. These hand-culled materials have been used in designs contributed by some nineteen notable floral designers as well as the author. The text and designs combine to reveal the fresh, creative applications of Texas' decorative naturals and to increase our pleasure in the wonders of natural Texas.

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Green Planet
How Plants Keep the Earth Alive
Rice, Stanley A
Rutgers University Press, 2012
2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Plants are not just a pretty part of the landscape; they keep the entire planet, with all of its human and nonhuman inhabitants, alive. Stanley Rice documents the many ways in which plants do this by making oxygen, regulating the greenhouse effect, controlling floods, and producing all the food in the world. Plants also create natural habitats for all organisms in the world. With illustrations and clear writing for non-specialists, Green Planet helps general readers realize that if we are to rescue the Earth from environmental disaster, we must protect wild plants.

Beginning with an overview of how human civilization has altered the face of the Earth, particularly by the destruction of forests, the book details the startling consequences of these actions. Rice provides compelling reasons for government officials, economic leaders, and the public to support efforts to save threatened and endangered plants. Global campaigns to solve environmental problems with plants, such as the development of green roofs and the Green Belt Movementùa women's organization in Kenya that empowers communities worldwide to protect the environmentùshow readers that efforts to save wild plants can be successful and beneficial to the economic well-being of nations.

Through current scientific evidence, readers see that plants are vital to the ecological health of our planet and understand what can be done to lead to a betterùand greenerùfuture

Benefits of plants:

  • Help modulate greenhouse gases
  • Produce almost all oxygen in the air
  • Create cool shade that reduces energy costs
  • Prevent floods, droughts, and soil erosion
  • Produce all of the food in the world
  • Create and preserve soil
  • Create natural habitats
  • Heal the landscape after natural and human disasters
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A Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Elizabeth A. Powell
University of Nevada Press, 2023

 A Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National Recreation Area is the definitive book for weekend explorers and botanists alike who venture into LMNRA ready to discover the many wonders of the local flora. The authors highlight 183 plants that hikers are most likely to encounter along popular trails, washes, and surrounding hot springs, helping the area’s millions of annual visitors identify and enjoy these common plants. This guide includes photos and descriptions of each plant, along with a map of LMNRA.
 
The authors also provide a primer on plant ecology, including a guide to plant structures, desert adaptations and life forms, plant-to-plant interactions, and plant-animal interactions. Plants are grouped by life forms, such as tree, shrub, cactus, or grass, and by flower color within the wildflower section. The guide will encourage readers to pause and look carefully at each plant they encounter, giving them an enriched experience during their exploration.

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Guide to the Flowers of Western China
Christopher Grey-Wilson and Phillip Cribb
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2023
A completely revised and updated second edition of the essential field guide and reference work.

Since the publication of the first edition of Guide to the Flowers of Western China in 2011, there have been great strides in knowledge of the flora of China through international collaboration. Many plants included in the first edition have been revisited in the wild, while areas hitherto inaccessible have opened up, if sometimes only temporarily. Great advances in systematic botany have occurred since the publication of the first edition, particularly with the widespread availability of rapid DNA analysis. The result of this has been an influx of new photographs and data, and the need for a second edition of Guide to the Flowers of Western China.
 
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Guide to the Flowers of Western China
Christopher Grey-Wilson and Phillip Cribb
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2011

Unrivaled in the temperate latitudes of the world, China’s rich flora comprises 30,000 species of plants, and nowhere is this floral richness more evident than in western China. With its lush forests, meandering rivers, and majestic mountains, the west of China has been a center of plant exploration for over two centuries, giving rise to many well-known species of trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs that populate our parks and botanical institutes, including rhododendron, orchids, peonies, and roses.

            
Guide to the Flowers of Western China describes and illustrates more than two thousand species, from the common to the endemic to the extremely rare. Plant families are arranged following the latest DNA-based classification, making this pictorial guide— the largest and most comprehensive on western China ever published—essential for gardeners and plant scientists.


Celebrating the wealth of western China’s vast flora, this magnificent volume will enable the horticulturally inclined traveler (or armchair traveler) to identify many of the plants encountered in the wild.

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A Guide to the Spring Flowers of Minnesota
Carl Rosendahl
University of Minnesota Press, 1937
A Guide to the Spring Flowers of Minnesota was first published in 1937. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.This well-known students’ handbook contains fully illustrated keys, a glossary, and indexes of the common and scientific names of both the native and the cultivated flowers of the state. While the authors make no claim to its completeness beyond the boundaries of Minnesota, the guide will be found useful in adjacent states.
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front cover of Guide To The Trees Shrubs & Woody Vines
Guide To The Trees Shrubs & Woody Vines
S. Eugene Wofford
University of Tennessee Press, 2002
Tennessee is home to more than four hundred species of woody plants, but until now there has been no comprehensive guide to them. This work fills that gap, as B. Eugene Wofford and Edward W. Chester provide identification keys to all native and naturalized species of trees, shrubs, and woody vines found in the state.

The book is organized by plant types, which are divided into gymnosperms and angiosperms. For each species treated, the authors include both scientific and common names, a brief description, information on flowering and fruiting seasons, and distribution patterns. Photographs illustrate more than ninety five percent of species, and the text is fully indexed by families and genera, scientific names, and common names. A glossary is keyed to photographs in the text to illustrate definitions.

In their introduction, Wofford and Chester provide an overview of the Tennessee flora and their characteristics, outline Tennessee’s physiographic regions, and survey the history of botanical research in the state. The authors also address the historical and environmental influences on plant distribution and describe comparative diversity of taxa within the regions.
Guide to Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Tennessee will be a valuable resource and identification guide for professional and lay readers alike, including students, botanists, foresters, gardeners, environmentalists, and conservationists interested in the flora of Tennessee.
 
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