Books for Identifying Plants

The book that introduced me to North American plants and which I still find quite useful is North American Wildlife edited by Susan J. Wernert (1982; Reader's Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York), which is probably the best one-volume guide to American animals, plants, algae and fungi. Plants are covered in two sections in this book: Trees and Shrubs (pages 286-331) and Wildflowers (pages 332-507). Unusually for a non-technical work the plants are arranged in systematic order, the wildflowers starting with the Saururaceae and ending with the Orchidaceae. The family names are not actually indicated in the book so I remedied this in my copy by inserting the names at the top of the pages. Although many field guides to flowering plants are organized according to flower color and may therefore appear to be easy to use such artificial classifications make it difficult to recognize family (or generic) characteristics. I don't think you can 'learn' your plants in any meaningful way without some appreciation of their taxonomic affinities, so I find the treatment of wildflowers in the Reader's Digest book useful. Two field guides that are organized according to flower color which I use often are the old classic A Field Guide to Wildflowers: Northeastern and North-central North America by Roger Tory Peterson and Margaret McKenny (1968; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston) and the more recent Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States by Steven Clemants and Carol Gracie (2006; Oxford University Press, New York). The illustrations in the Peterson guide are drawings (including some in color), while those in the Clemants and Gracie book are photographs. To these titles must be added two excellent books on weedy spontaneously growing plants: Weeds of the Northeast by Uva et al. (1997) and Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Del Tredici (2010), which I have mentioned in a previous post; they are both very useful for getting to know the flora of New York City. Grasses and related plants are usually not included in field guides to flowering plants but one slim volume with excellent line drawings that I have found useful for identifying them is Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes of the United States by Edward Knobel (revised by Mildred E. Faust, 1977; Dover Publications, New York). For trees, my preferred field guide is Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification by C. Frank Brockman (2001; St. Martin's Press, New York), a copy of the original edition of 1968 of which I picked up many years ago at the Strand Bookstore. Another useful book for identifying trees which is profusely illustrated with black and white photographs of leaves, flowers, fruits, bark and twigs is The Tree Identification Book by George W. W. Symonds (1958; HarperCollins, New York). For most city trees the handy guide New York City Trees: A Field Guide to the Metropolitan Area by Edward Sibley Barnard (2002; Columbia University Press, New York) is convenient to use. Though there are many excellent field guides to wildflowers and trees (with new ones appearing regularly) books useful for identifying shrubs and vines are not very numerous. One book that I have found useful is The Shrub Identification Book by George W. D. Symonds (1963; HarperCollins, NewYork), which is a companion volume to the author's tree book and is similarly illustrated with numerous black and white photographs. It covers those many species of plants that tend not to be included in popular plant field guides because they don't fall neatly into the 'wildflowers' or 'trees' categories. This list of books includes only titles that I own or have ready access to and which I use regularly. One wildflower guide which I don't own but which was once recommended to me by a professional botanist is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb (189; Little, Brown and Company, Boston). Lastly, one should mention the 'ultimate authority' when it comes to identifying plants in the northeastern United States: Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (Second Edition) by Henry A. Gleason and Arthur Cronquist (1991, 2004 or later reprint; The New York Botanical Gardens Press, New York). The absence of illustrations in Gleason and Conquist is remedied in the slightly larger format companion volume Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual: Illustrations of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada by Noel H. Holmgren (1998; The New York Botanical Gardens Press). Gleason and Cronquist's massive tome is definitely not for the casual reader but for the serious naturalist it provides answers that other publications cannot. 'Gleason and Cronquist' covers clubmosses, horsetails, ferns and relatives, in addition to flowering plants, i.e. all vascular plants.