Guide to Flowering Plant Families

by Wendy B. Zomlefer

Book Overview

Understanding the flowering plants of any region begins with the recognition of families. This remarkable volume, created to serve students, professionals, and other plant enthusiasts, covers 130 temperate to tropical families common in North America with detailed illustrations and modern referenced commentaries. Each family discussion includes a diagnosis and summary of characteristics, distribution data, important economic members, and pollination...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807844705
• ISBN13: 9780807844700
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 2.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, but not for the beginner

This is the last word in botanical family id. But the vocabulary is very dense, which makes Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary an essential adjunct to it.

Great resource for a beginner

I got this book because I needed to learn about plants and I needed a no nonsense, basic introduction to the plant families of the world--not just trees, not just herbs, and not just information from one part of the world. This book is all that and more. The descriptions of each family use botanical terminology, there are clear line drawings of the taxonomically informative characters, and economically important species are listed in each family. Because I am not an expert on plants, I can't comment on the accuracy of the information, but I can say that this book has been a great resource for me, as a novice botanist. My only complaint (and this is a minor one, because this is not supposed to be a field guide) is that I am unfamiliar with many of the families and color photos would really help me to learn to recognize the plants in nature. I highly recommend this book.

Great Reference

This book is awesome for finding taxonomic ranks, especially that above family status. I work with plant ID's and really use this book to help with finding the obscure ones.

Wonderful reference!

Once again Wendy Zomlefer has provided us with a beautiful, yet very functional, work of art. This book is an excelent reference for both the general public and the seasoned botanist.