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Post by faith on Mar 1, 2016 9:42:35 GMT
  With the flowering season now coming on (in some parts of the country anyway!) I wondered if anyone would like to take a look at this. It is a little book for taking out in the field, as it is A6 and spiral bound, with totally weatherproof pages. The idea is to ID plants by finding the family first, so it is then much easier to consult a standard fieldguide like Rose or Collins by starting from their family keys. After a bit of introduction, there is a flowchart (sample – first pic) to 50 families which has been tested by many students and found to work in the vast majority of cases. Then (second pic) there are descriptions of 24 of the families – not every detail, but enough to give a general picture of the family characters. Anyway, if you are interested, you can see more about the Pocket Guide to Wildflower Families on link. |
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 2, 2016 9:43:35 GMT
I have a bookshelf full of wildflower books,Encyclopaedia of flowers,herbs etc, but could not resist this little book, so have bought it - ta
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Post by faith on Mar 2, 2016 11:54:50 GMT
It's on its way!
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 2, 2016 15:03:09 GMT
How about putting your post on the 'Books and Media' - see under Social
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Post by faith on Mar 2, 2016 15:59:52 GMT
Thanks, I did that too! Trouble is, the thread heading soon goes down the list, and if other people are like me, they tend to read just the threads with the latest posts. However, if anyone wants to comment once they've looked at the book, they can start a new thread maybe??
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Post by shirl100 on Mar 2, 2016 17:35:54 GMT
I have a bookshelf full of wildflower books,Encyclopaedia of flowers,herbs etc, but could not resist this little book, so have bought it - ta It looks great so I have just ordered a copy too! |
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Post by faith on Mar 2, 2016 18:56:47 GMT
And yours is on its way too!
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 4, 2016 10:23:58 GMT
Faith I have copied your link to castaways, plus copied a bit of your text as explanation. Got your guide this morning and think it is charming and very useful.
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Post by faith on Mar 4, 2016 13:46:17 GMT
That's very good of you, Helen. It's unlikely to be taken on by any of the big bookshops, so word of mouth (or word of website, as it were) is probably the best way of getting it about. I'm amazed you got it so soon, though, as I only sent it yesterday second class. I hope you will find it even more useful once there is anything blooming to use it with! Here in Perthshire I saw my first lesser celandine only yesterday.
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Post by faith on Mar 4, 2016 18:51:45 GMT
That's very good of you ashgale!
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Post by shirl100 on Mar 4, 2016 19:16:18 GMT
And yours is on its way too! And it arrived today, it's a great book ideal for the pocket - and the wet weather! I can't wait to use it as my plant id isn't brilliant (I usually have to photograph and then try and find out what the plants are later). Thank you Shirl |
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Post by ayjay on Mar 4, 2016 22:17:36 GMT
This is something I would almost certainly find useful as I'm rubbish at ID-ing plants, but, looking at the pics in the first post, will I also need a WFK and a CFG?
If so, would someone give me an ISBN number for those please.
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Post by faith on Mar 5, 2016 8:32:58 GMT
This book gets you as far as the family for whatever plant you are trying to ID. That is half the battle, and otherwise really difficult if you haven't much of a clue what you've found. To find the species, you will then need a field guide, preferably one that has a key for each family (or most families, anyway).
My favourite is Collins Flower Guide ISBN 978-0-00-718389-0, by Streeter et al. For myself, I find Francis Rose's Wildflower Key ISBN 978-0-7232-5175-0 more fiddly to use and the pics not so good, but some people like it. However, even without either of those, a field guide like Fitter & Blamey (2013 edition 978-14081-79505-0) is very helpful because the pictures and descriptions are so good, you don't always need a key if you're not trying to be a specialist or anything. (Stace is the 'botanists' bible' but much more exhaustive – and exhausting!)
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Post by ayjay on Mar 5, 2016 18:19:14 GMT
This book gets you as far as the family for whatever plant you are trying to ID. That is half the battle, and otherwise really difficult if you haven't much of a clue what you've found. To find the species, you will then need a field guide, preferably one that has a key for each family (or most families, anyway). My favourite is Collins Flower Guide ISBN 978-0-00-718389-0, by Streeter et al. For myself, I find Francis Rose's Wildflower Key ISBN 978-0-7232-5175-0 more fiddly to use and the pics not so good, but some people like it. However, even without either of those, a field guide like Fitter & Blamey (2013 edition 978-14081-79505-0) is very helpful because the pictures and descriptions are so good, you don't always need a key if you're not trying to be a specialist or anything. (Stace is the 'botanists' bible' but much more exhaustive – and exhausting!) Thank you Faith.  Specialist is definitely not on the menu, mostly I just don't like not knowing what something is. |
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