Product Description

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 ecology. The book's most striking feature is Zomlefer's 158 original pen-and-ink plates depicting intricate dissections of 312 species.

The content of the family discussions is geared to readers who have completed one introductory biology course. For readers less familiar with botanical terminology, Zomlefer provides an illustrated glossary of 551 terms with more than 300 drawings. Other important tutorial features are twenty-two detailed charts that compare pertinent characteristics of certain related plant groups and a general chart that summarizes the salient features of the families covered in the text. Both amateurs and professionals will particularly enjoy the chapter on examining, dissecting, and sketching live material.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #118413 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

From Library Journal
This comprehensive, illustrated guide characterizes 130 flowering plant families common in the native and naturalized floras of the temperate and tropical regions of the United States. Arranged according to Thorne's classification scheme, each family entry contains descriptions of major plant parts (leaves, flowers, fruits), distinguishing chemical and morphological features, distribution data, major genera and species in the group, economic plants and products, and commentary on pollination biology and taxonomic problems. High-quality pen-and-ink artwork by Zomlefer, a plant taxonomist and scientific illustrator, is used to illustrate the important family characteristics of over 300 representative species. Information on botanical illustrations, comparative data charts, an illustrated glossary, and a family summary chart with floral formulas round out this quality work. This affordable taxonomy textbook is an excellent purchase for every library supporting horticultural or botanical studies.
Teresa Elberson, Lafayette P.L., La.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Superbly executed. . . . An impressive amount of thought, labor, and firsthand experience with plants obviously went into this synthesis.

Rudolf Schmid, Taxon

As taxonomically accurate as it is beautiful, and fills a real need in the community of systematic botanists.

Walter S. Judd, Systematic Botany

Anyone enthusiastic about plants should have the volume on their shelves.

Sandra Knapp, Nature

A book for taxonomists and for book lovers, a pleasure to hold and to open at any point.

Neil A. Harriman, Economic Botany

Highly recommended!

Castanea

Customer Reviews

Very handy reference to have around.

Occasionally I have to (try) and key out plants at work. Not having a botany background makes this difficult and when I get stumped on a particular term or piece of plant anatomy I call up this book to walk me through the terminology. It is particularly useful if you can key the plant out to family level. It's picture (line art) illustrations are very clear and help tremendously when trying to understand what it is the key is referring to. Well worth the 35 dollars if you deal with the anatomy of plants at all or need to know family characteristics.

Guide to Flowering Plant Families by Wendy B. Zomlefer [Paperback]
*****This should be a five star rating but something happened when I wrote the review so I can't change the star rating. Suffice it to say that this is a very comprehensive book with wonderful black and white illustrations. A very useful guide for students of botanical art or for anyone interested in plants.

Missing Families
Many floras and the USDA Plant Database use Cronquist's classification system. Several families in that system are missing in Thorne's system as used in this book. I would suggest supplementing this book with James Payne Smith's "Vascular Plant Families."