Synopses & Reviews
Flora of North America, Volume 3, provides information on many of the most familiar wildflowers and trees in North America. Included are treatments of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), with such plants as delphiniums and columbines, and the poppy family (Papveraceae). Most of the important broadleaf tree species are covered, including the oaks (Fagaceae), elms (Ulmaceae), birches (Betulaceae), walnuts (Juglandaceae), plane trees (Platanaceae), and magnolias (Magnoliaceae). Many striking families are covered, such as the dutchman's pipe family (Aristolochiaceae), and the aquatic families Nymphaeaceae (water lilies), and Nelumbonaceae (lotus). As with Volume 2, this unique reference provides identification keys, summaries of habitats and geographic ranges, distribution maps, pertinent synonymies, descriptions, chromosome numbers, phenological information, and other significant biological observations for each species. The treatments--written and reviewed by experts throughout the systematic botanical community--are based on original observations of herbarium specimens and, whenever possible, on living plants. These observations are supplemented by critical reviews of the literature. For anyone interested in the definitive account of North American plant life, this newest volume in the long-awaited Flora will be valued as an indispensable acquisition.
Review
"Likely to be regarded as a major event in botany. Its volumes provide more authoritative and useful treatments than do the regional accounts, which hitherto have been the only available source for scientists, conservationists, land managers, agriculturalists, foresters, prospectors for medicinal plants, and amateur naturalists." --The New York Times
"What you get here is a lot more than what you see.... authoritative. This is a dictionary of plant species, the working vocabulary of plant biodiversity, as essential to its knowing, productive users as any big dictionary." --Scientific American
Table of Contents
Introduction
Keys to Major Taxa
Magnoliophyta
Magnoliopsida: Magnoliidae and Hamamelidae
Literature Cited
Appendix: Llist of Major Flora and Checklists
Index to Authors
Index