Book Description

Reviews (1)

The best in the field!
There has never been a handsomer, more erudite, more pleasurable wildflower book to read than this one. Sanders has done a magnificent job of pulling together information from an array of sources---up-to-date science, folklore, descriptive natural history, medicinal uses, and more. Botanical manuals and field guides are vital for identifying North American wildflowers. This book is vital to learn the stories behind the species. It's beautiful to page through and a delight to read. I recommend it most highly! ... Read more

Book Description

This standard-setting, state-of-the-art field guide to the wildflowers of Indiana (and surrounding states) includes all 1,568 herbaceous species recorded in the state. It contains 640 color photographs, along with helpful explanations and numerous drawings of the characteristics that separate each of the individual species.

This Field Guide replaces every previous guide to Indiana wildflowers. With an emphasis on completeness, strong visual presentation, and simplicity of terminology, this book will be invaluable to anyone, amateur or botanical professional, interested in Indiana's diverse wildflower population. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A much needed field guide to Indiana wildflowers
This field guide to Indiana wildflowers should be a valuable reference for both the professional and amateur botanist. The species descriptions given are adequate to distinguish similar species in most cases. The ranges given for several species appear to be inaccurate. ... Read more

Book Description

Now you can cut years off the process of learning about plants.Learn how related plants have similar features for identification.Discover how they often have similar properties and similar uses.Toms book takes you beyond the details towards a greater understanding of the patterns among plants.Most plant books cover only one or two hundred species.Botany in a Day includes more than 100 plant families and over 700 generaincluding edible and medicinal usesapplicable to many thousands of species.

With this book you will be able to recognize patterns in plants everywhere you goin the wild, in your garden, among house plants, even at the florist.Understand the magic of patterns among plants, and the world will never look the same again!

Many people recognize plants from the Mint family because they have square stalks, opposite leaves and most of them smell minty.I like to start my classes with a discussion of the the Mints because this pattern is so well known.What people dont realize is that similar patterns exist for other families of plants as well.Simply put, the study of botany is the study of patterns in plants!

Learning patterns in plants is fun, and you only need to learn about 100 broad patterns to recognize something about virtually every plant from coast to coast across the northern latitdudes.

In a two hour plant walk we typically start with the Mint Family, then progress through the Mustard, Pea, Parsley, Borage, Lily and Aster Families, so that every student can easily recognize these common families representing several thousand species.Ive had people tell me they learned more in that two hour walk than in an entire semester of botany in college. Thomas J. Elpel, Botany in a Day AUTHORBIO: Thomas J. Elpel had the rare opportunity as a child to spend hundreds of hours with his grandmother, exploring the hills and meadows of Montana.Toms grandmother helped him to learn about the native plants and their uses, igniting a passion for nature that has inspired Tom ever since.

Tom is now the director of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School (HOPS) in Pony, Montana where he teaches classes on stone age skills, including botany.Botany in a Day grew from Toms desire to provide an easy means for other people to discover a closer connection with the natural world.Tom is also the author of three other books inspired by nature, including: Participating in Nature, Direct Pointing to Real Wealth and Living Homes. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Tremendous help to this novice
When I started a new hobby of photographing wildflowers, I had no clue on the importance of learning plant families in order to identify them. If I couldn't tell from the picture in a field guide, I was up a creek. "Botany in a Day" was the first book I found that organized the families in a simple, clear way that I could understand and this system has become my main guide for grouping and identification. The herbal information is interesting, but not relevant to my project. I'm very grateful for the help I've received from this book

Good intention, disappointing result
This book could have been a gem for people interested in botany and healing plants, but it does not manage to fill this void. The text is not read by a professional botanist (I assume) and incorrect or dubious facts are common. Furthermore, the text is filled with typos and misspellings that could easily have been caught in a simple spell-checking program. The figures are from older literature and are not well reproduced. The aim with this book, to explain botany in a day, is highly recommendable, but I cannot recommend this book in its present shape and quality-level. A completely corrected, re-formatted, and revised edition of this book is needed. For people interested in the plant families of North America I instead recommend the high-quality work of Zomlefer: Guide to Flowering Plant Families.

A comprehensive guide to plant families
Though definitely *not* a field guide. This book is intended to be an introduction to plant families, and it does a good job at that. All the vascular plant families present in North America are briefly described and identification tips noted. Very few actual species are thoroughly described, though the "medicinal" properties of many species, mostly collected from other sources, are recounted here. This book would be better titled "Herbalism in a Day" as it's long on lists of medicinal uses and short on detailed botanical information. I'm pleased I purchased it, but it would be a inadequate substitute for an actual field guide or flora.

Covers over 100 plant families and over 700 genera
Most plant books cover a few hundred species: Botany In A Day covers over 100 plant families and over 700 genera, from edible plants to medicinal plants, providing a focus on herbal plant families which users will find easy and important. No color photos; black and white line drawings serve as the illustration for descriptions which are detailed, from the plant's appearance to the author's experiences using the plant in applications. Botany In A Day is simply packed with information and an invaluable reference for aspiring gardeners and neophyte horticulturalists.

Let the cover be your judge!
Contrary to the old axiom, this book actually delivers what it promises on the cover. By spending just one day with this book you'll get a fairly comprehensive understanding of the evolution of plants, their general classifications, and unique properties. The author writes in a very straightforward, concise, easy-to-read style that lets you absorb the information quickly and easily without being burdened with excessive detail. I also thoroughly enjoyed his Gestalt approach to Botany. I purchased this book as a supplement to my college course in Field Botany and discovered a wonderful resource. ... Read more

Book Description

The majestic area of New Jersey known as the pine barrens is a vast natural area acknowledged worldwide for its unique flora. In this guide, Howard P. Boyd offers readers 150 detailed descriptions along with 130 color photographs of the most commonly seen pine barrens wild flower species. Avoiding highly technical language and terminology, Boyd makes it easy for anyone to identify and appreciate these natural beauties of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Organized chronologically by blossoming times, this insightful guide is a must-have for anyone interested in the flora of the pine barrens. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

My primary reference for area wildflowers
This is the first book I pick up when identifying wildflowers of Ohio. The information is complete and entertaining, as well, with interesting notations regarding the history of many of the plants. The beautiful photos make it easy to recognize most of the flowers in the field immediately. I recommend this book as a useful and enjoyable way to learn about regional wildflowers.

Use this book to get started
This book is by no means a comprehensive listing of all wildflowers and shrubs in Ohio, but it is a great resource for anyone who is just getting acquainted with plant identification. Using this guide, you should be able to identify most plants that are in flower to species and identify the rest to family or genus. The color pictures are clear and the format is easy to use. I would recommend this book to hikers, butterfly enthusiasts, and anyone else who appreciates wildflowers and wants to be able to identify more of them.

Great Book
This book is just fine! I totally disagree with the 1st reviewer. I have other books that are also helpful and need to use them all for reference. The photos are helpful and the information is totally accurate & I consider my self an expert in this area. I don't know what the 1st reviewer is talking about??? I prefer this to Perterson's Guides. I use Audobon's as my 1st choice and use this as a good everyday back up.

pathetic
i think that these books are totally inaccurate me being a flower lover figured the books would at least be half close.

Easy to use local field guide
For anyone wanting to know more about Ohio's wildflowers, Henn's field guide is a thorough and easy to use resource. Flowers are sorted by color, and information such as habitat, blooming period and scientific classification are provided. This is a very thorough guide and I have yet to see a wildflower in Ohio that is not in this book. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Wildflowers of Texas
This book was a great help to my classmates and I. We had a project and had to look up flowers the names and scientific names and it was so easy to use it took us no time at all.

very informative
A truly beautiful book. I walk in the fields and identify most of the flowers. There is one however, that I can't seem to find in the book. Will send a picture of it, if you like. Please advise. rosalee

good for beginners because organized by flower color
I have found this wildflower ID book extremely useful to my students because they do not have to wade through the selections by families but can narrow down their searching and time by going directly to the color section for the flower they have. The page size of the book makes it more useful for field ID than bigger sized books. A few of the photos lack definitive pictures of leaf, bud, and stem structures and may give a mistaken impression of flower size.

A "must-have" for identifying wildflowers in Texas!!!
This is a great reference manual that shows actual pictures of the plants with a full description and even some interesting facts about the plant itself. I use this book a lot when trying to identify roadside plants or the wild ones in my yard. The book is separated into sections by flower color to make it easier to look up a new plant. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

Whose rose is this?....
Thomas Christopher, a garden writer with a great deal of experience went looking for wild roses. His trip took him all over the United States from Connecticut to Texas to California to the American South. He discovered a unique fellowship of individuals who over the years have grown and thus preserved what are known as 'old roses'.

I happen to grow Blanc Double de Courbet in my own garden, so was a little annoyed to read that one of Mr. Christopher's interviewees (Mike Lowe of Nashua NH) did not particularly like this particular Rugosa rose. I agree the blossoms are not very tidy as they wither on the plant, but cut a few of these roses in full bloom and bring them in the house and you won't care about the faded blossoms (which are more scented than some of the modern hybrids in full bloom). I like to place a vase of these white roses next to my reading chair. The scent is so fabulous that from time to time I become aware of it no matter how engrossing the book.

Christopher interviews folks in California who live in the old gold mine areas where everything is in shambles except the roses growing madly in the abandoned gardens. He interviews elderly Black women who have grown old roses abandoned by their employers who took up with the new hybrids. The true identity of the roses is often unknown (or was not known before modern genetics) and thus the roses have acquired the names of the persons who 'saved' them. For example, one rose named 'Miss Mary Minor' was later identified as 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'.

Malmaison, as anyone who grows roses knows was the garden of Josephine Bonaparte. All garden writers who tell the tale like to remind readers that even the British during their battles with Napoleon accommodated Malmaison. Josephine was able to maintain her garden and stay in contact with British Rosarians in spite of the sea battles that raged around her.

Which leads to the decision of the United States to name the rose as the national flower (the rose is the national flower of England not France). Some of us are old enough to remember Senator Dirksen lauding the marigold and nominating it for the honor of national flower. Chistopher reminds the reader that like Benjamin Franklin and the turkey, Dirksen was doomed to fail. In the end, the US congress chose the rose. Some us like to imagine the American rose is a wild five-petaled rose and not one of those silly hybrids found in florist's shops.

A delight for rose lovers, and a fun read for anyone
My family has a long-standing love affair with roses: a "Belle of Portugal" that my grandmother planted in the 1920's has been passed down through several generations. So I found this book utterly delightful, full of fascinating anecdotes about old varieties of roses, the characters who developed and distributed them, and the even wilder characters who "rustle" and propagate old roses with passion and gusto today. The chapters are thematic and geographical, rather than historical, but they're immensely fun to read. I learned all sorts of amazing historical trivia -- e.g., why the Grass Valley, CA public library owns a Cornish/English dictionary, and the political aspects of rose nomenclature. And, as someone interested in "heirloom" plants in general (I'm a card-carrying member of Slow Food), I found his discussion of rose genetics and propagation fascinating. Some of his stories are poignant, too -- e.g., the elderly black women in rural Texas who propagated roses over the centuries from sheer love, but were dying out even as he wrote. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and recommend it even if you're not an old rose buff.

Few gardening books like this one
For me, Gardening is about feeding my soul with beauty. If you are weary from reading the countless "how-to" gardening books that fill the shelves of the bookstore, then I would highly recommend this book.

Did you know that public parks evolved historically from cemeteries? Read this book to find out more.

And, no doubt, as other reviewers have noted, you will go out and find yourself one of these roses after reading their story.

Great book! :-)

An interesting personal story
This book was an interesting compendium of the experiences of the author in looking for and finding old roses. He gives insight into the background of roses, where to find them and practical knowledge of the collecting. I do think it is a scientific work or an index, rather an interesting read about how he approached collecting old roses and what made them interesting to him. I enjoyed it!

~a life-long collector of garden writing says...~
There are few books in my gardening library so excellent I buy extra copies; miserly dealt out only to The Worthy. One of them is In Search Of Lost Roses.

In Search Of Lost Roses is a romp. A detective story. We are outlaws. We skulk through forgotten cemeteries. We drive old dirt roads. We meet eccentric old folks over garden gates, guardian angels of roses whose scent we will remember all our lives; things foreign to hybridizers in white lab coats.

I defy you to read this book and ~not~ acquire at least one of the old roses lauded within. My first choice was 'Aimee Vibert', a climbing noisette from 1828. England and France have an ancient horticultural feud. French nurseryman J.P. Vibert named his fragrant white masterpiece after his daughter. (As an aside: hunt plants with a woman's name. Only the best plants were named after wives, daughters, and mistresses.) Vibert said of his delicate climber "The English when they see her will go down on their knees." As I did and still do. For the three weeks she blooms on the arbor she is the goddess of the garden. She has a magnetizing effect on garden visitors and I tell them the story and say the punchline in my Inspector Clouseau accent. It is a testament to Mlle. Vibert that 200 years later she is still enchanting, passed down gardener to gardener. I never would have known her without In Search Of Lost Roses.

You will never forget this book. But buy it for the rose rustler's cutting recipe alone, if you will. They helped me to root cuttings from a fragrant and summer-long unknown in an ancient cemetery (I gave her the name of the lady she was planted over) after two years of trying other methods. And buy two. Perhaps someone you know is worthy. 5 Stars for Mr. Christopher. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best single book for the serious enthusiast
Wilbur Duncan is professor emeritus of botany at the Univeristy of Georgia, and with his wife, Marion, have travelled extensively through the eastern US photographing and studying the plants. This book is essentially an update to his 1978 Wildflowers of the Southeast United States, expanded to include the area east of the Mississippi River.

Note to begninners and novices: this is a pretty heavy-duty book, no shortcuts to get to the flower by color or leaf. If you ID the "thumb-through" method, it will take time as there are 630 species with photographs. That's a lot to thumb through. The first portion of the book is descriptions of the species (631) arranged by family and genus. So a working knowledge of scientific names at the family and genus level is a very big help. All the photographs are labelled ONLY with scientific names. Trying it out on a total beginner and a novice taught me that scientific names are a hindrance to easy learning, BUT, if you really want to know what species you are looking at, it is an absolute necessity. That's why it's for the SERIOUS enthusiast.

Scott Ranger ... Read more

Book Description

This guide describes 590 species, with detailed information on flowering season, related species, range, and habitat. More than 100 plant drawings supplement these descriptions, and more than 200 color photographs show flowers as they appear in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

A Northland wildflower book that features large color photographs and black-and-white drawings of every species included. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Alaska-Yukon Wild flowers guide
The book provides an excellent overview of flowers in Alaska & the Yukon, and is useful for identification using the color pictures for each flower.I regret that it is out of print.

Okay cross section but far from comprehensive.
I've used this book for a few years and have found that I have replaced it with Pojar & MacKinnon's Plants of the Pacific Northwest.The Alaska Yukon Wild Flowers Guide that I have was printed in 1995 but copyrighted in '74.The phots throughout seem as though they were taken in the 70's.The pictures are largely similar to those I take now - washed out with poor colors.The book does have a nice cross section of flowers from beaches to alpine.I'll keep my copy for my library but when it comes to field identification I'll go with the previously mentioned title.(Which is limited to SE Alaska - sorry.) ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good pictures, not enough plants listed
While those wildflowers that are listed in this book are well photographed and described, about two thirds of those I've looked up have not been included. I'm pretty sure that what's growing on my land is fairly typical Ohio flora, so I'm a bit disappointed.

Terrific, very kid-friendly!
I bought this and the Henn "Wildflowers of Ohio" for my little girl, now 4. She enjoys them both, but I think the format of this book is more user-friend for a small child as there is only one flower on each page and the picture is large. I have found one flower so far that was not in Tekiela's book but was in Henn's, so you might want to get both. Henn's book does not stay open as easily, so Tekiela's book is easier to use when you're squated looking at something. Tekiela's has little boxes next to the names in the index so you can check off the ones you find, so that is nice. In the Henn book, the font is smaller and the layout shows 3 flowers printed sideways, so you have to turn the book to read it. The font in the Tekiela book is larger and a normal, vertical layout. This might be important with kids or anyone who benefits from larger fonts. Both guides are very good though, so I'd be hard-pressed to chose between them. Probably you'll have to do like me and just buy both! LOL. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Simple and useful
Not a bad book large format so it's easy to thumb through and explore.. For greater coverage you would be better off using The National Audubon Societ Field Guide to Florida. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the third edition of an established and successful university textbook.The original structure and philosophy of the book continue in this new edition, providing a genuine synthesis of modern ecological and physiological thinking, while entirely updating the detailed content.New features include a fresh, unified treatment of toxicity, emphasizing common features of plant response to ionic, gaseous, and other toxins, explicit treatment of issues relating to global change, and a section on the role of fire in plant physiology and communities.The illustrations in the text are improved over previous editions, including color plates for the first time, and the authors' continuing commitment to providing wide citation of the relevant literature has further improved the reference list.This revision of Environmental Physiology of Plants will ensure the reputation of this title as a useful and relevant text well into the 21st century.

Key Features
* Includes enhanced illustrations, now with color plates
* Examines new molecular approaches which can be harnessed to solve problems in physiology
* Features new topics such as the unified treatment of toxicity, an explicit treatment of the issues relating to global change, and a section on the role of fire ... Read more

Book Description

Author Jack Sanders explores the lives and lore of more than 80 of North America's most popular wildflowers, describing the origins of their names, their places in history and literature, what uses ancient herbalists found for them, what uses they have now, where they grow, how they reproduce, and how to grow or transplant them. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The world in a wildflower...
Emerson knew... Audubon knew... Steichen knew... Jack Sanders knows... an exhaustive yet never exhausting catalogue of the world beneath our feet... that which we ignore... yet which means so much... Jack Sanders... Carl Sandburg... a poet of nature... The Big Eye appreciates the ones who notice...

The best book on wildflower folklore in or out of print
An indefatigable researcher, wildflower lover and newspaper editor Jack Sanders has compiled an extraordinary collection of information about North American wildflowers. Learn here about the naming of plants, their medicinal uses, and what the great naturalists of the past said about them. The book is gorgeous and the text is alive with Sanders's wit and wisdom. I recommend the book most enthusiastically to floraphiles, botanists, and naturalists. ... Read more

Book Description

This definitive encyclopedia has long been considered the "bible" of temperate climate gardeners and in one of the world's most popular flower books.Newly-revised for this edition, with over 100 new entries to total over 1800 color plates, it includes ever-popular favorites as well as exotic flowers from around the world.The vast ides contains 6000 entries.This accessible and easy-to-use guide is a must for the beginning or expert gardener. Achieve your garden's full potential.Author Stirling Macoboy's great, great grandfather migrated from Scotland as a professional nurseryman in the 1850's and the family has been experts in the field ever since.Until recently, he has been the garden consultant to Better Homes and Gardens. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

great pictures and descriptions
Wonderful book for novice gardeners.
Sellers NSB Books / MWood90 did a great job of providing a new book at a used book price.

WHAT FLOWER IS THAT?
THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK IS GREAT. BUT IT WAS NOT THE BOOK I ORDERED. THIS BOOK I GOT FROM SUPERBSTUFF WAS DIRTY, SMELLY, AND HAD THE PAGES STUCK TOGETHER BY FOOD OR SOMETHING. THE FRONT AND BACK COVERS ARE DIRTY. IT MUST HAVE BEEN PACKED AWAY FOR MANY YEARS IN A DAMP AND DIRTY PLACE. I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH IT AND I WILL BE SENDING IT BACK.

The book I grab first when trying to name a flower!
A large inventory of the flowers that you will see most often in the garden. The pictures are excellent for locating that particular flower when all you have to go on, is a flower you plucked by hand. (So often NO ONE knows the name.) That is when I reach for my very worn copy of Stirling MacOboy's, What Flower is That? I have over 40 flower search books, and still this book seems to be my favorite. It is easy to use and has Botanical names and pronunciation. All-in-all, a must have in the home library. Sorry to see it is no longer in print. Will make it a very valuable book. ... Read more

Book Description

The thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana is increasingly popular among plant scientists: it is small, easy to grow, and makes flowers, and the sequence of its small and simple genome was recently completed. This is the most complete and authoritative laboratory manual to be published on this model organism and the first to deal with genomic and proteomic approaches to its biology. ... Read more

Book Description

Spring is a very special time in the Desert Southwest. An astonishing variety of wildflowers, nurtured by the winter rains, can bloom in wondrous profusion and carpet the desert floor and mountainside slopes with glorious color. Indeed, each year thousands of visitors time their trips to the desert Southwest to coincide with wildflower season, and in a good year the spectacle can make front-page news. Author Meg Quinn is a recognized authority on plants of the desert Southwest and is in demand as a public speaker. In Wildflowers of the Desert Southwest, Meg Quinn helps even the most amateur botanist to identify more than eighty-five of the most common and showy species found in the Sonoran Desert. Each species is described in detail and depicted in full-color photographs in their natural habitat. Species are further organized by color for ease of identification. Quinn also includes tips for the best locations to look for specific wildflowers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to wildflowers of the southwest U.S.
A great introduction to the common wildflowers of the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave deserts of the southwestern United States. This little book has great photographs and simple clear concise descriptions of each species. There are even some very interesting ethnobotanical tidbits for many of the species, which I found fascinating. Each flower is conveniently grouped by color, which contributes to its ease of use in the field. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting our southwestern deserts in the springtime! ... Read more