Book Description

Here is a new, standard, and comprehensive text and field guide to the flora of Illinois, for the botanist and ecologist, amateur or professional. Robert H. Mohlenbrock, editor of the “Illustrated Flora of Illinois” series and a foremost authority on the flora of Illi­nois, has here provided a new up-to-date manual for those wishing to identify the state’s vascular plants. This guide con­tains the most complete list of plants to date— “additional taxa” given at the end of the book name 21 taxa discovered since the manuscript went to press—and recognizes varieties, subspecies, and forms. Divided into five parts, the book first provides a discussion of topography and distribution of plants contained in the study The Natural Divisions of Illinois, prepared by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and reprinted here in its entirety. A map showing the fourteen nat­ural divisions is included. Mohlenbrock also provides the general keys enabling the user to determine family names, and provides also keys to the 3,047 taxa of plants in the state. The data sup­plied for each taxon give the common name, if there is one, the months when flowering plants bloom, the habitat, geo­graphical distribution, and, for very rare plants, the counties in which they have been found. In convenient-size format for use as a field guide (a centimeter scale is printed on the endleaves), the book will be use­ful also as a textbook in high school as well as college and university classes.