Product Description

How to identify 135 of the most common species of North American grasses, sedges, and rushes, with their economic and ecological importance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96282 in Books
• Published on: 1992-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780395628812
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Lauren Brown is a contributor for Houghton Mifflin Company titles including: 'Grasses'

Customer Reviews

Useable, but flawed
As another review noted the range of this book is limited, from Minnesota to Kentucky and Maryland south, and north to Maine, although some of the grasses are more widespread. The copyright date is 1979 and while that does not disqualify it, it has not been updated. It suffers from 1) poor reproduction of the line drawings which are supposedly "as beautiful as they are exact" - they aren't either in this edition, being too small and with line details running together to show nothing but a black blob in many cases, and 2) no photographs, which I have come to expect of any decent field guide nowadays (especially in the absence of GOOD line drawings!). Also, the grasses are organized "by visual similarity, not always by taxonomic grouping." I'd prefer the latter.

On the plus side it has a useable key and often interesting information is presented for a species. I'll keep this book, but I would have bought something else had I known!

Good only for the Northeast
I am also a biologist, and was not particularly thrilled with the book. The drawings are decent, but the amateur key used to limit your choices is too amateur. The distribution of covered species is strictly for the Northeastern U.S., except for the occasional wide-spread grasses. If your not in the Northeast, another guide would be more benefical.

Best field gudie to grasses in East, Midwest.
I am a prairie biologist. I find this book to be the best in helping botanical amateurs (and some experts) identify common grasses. Use it only to find the species of a grass, not its ecology. Grasses are hard to identify. This book helps alot.