Subject: Need field guide recommendations

From: royg@dagwood (Roy Garringer)
Date: 18 Aug 1995 20:25:40 GMT

Can someone recommend a good field guide for trees and other plants  
(probably separate guides) for a beginner?

---

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Aug 1995 19:04:38 GMT

>(probably separate guides) for a beginner?

I don't know where you live, but the Golden Guide tree guide is good for 
beginners and covers the whole US. Also, look for Master Tree Finder.

	For herbs, I use the Peterson guide to Wildflowers, and a field guide 
of wildflowers and weeds by James H. Zimmerman and Booth Courtenay. 
These are only usable for th Midwest and Noortheast regions of the US.

---

From: [email-masked] (K. R. Robertson)
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 17:17:13 -0600

In article <[email-masked]>, royg@dagwood (Roy Garringer)

> (probably separate guides) for a beginner?

Field guides for plants generally apply to specific geographical regions. 
I am a professional botanist and normally use technical guides, but the
following guides seem to work well for beginners.  There are many others
that are pretty good in most large bookstores.

Trees
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees (there are separate
books for the Eastern Region and the Western Region). Alfred A. Knopf
Publishers. 1980.  [Lots of good photographs.]

Peterson Field Guide Series. A Field Guide to Eastern Trees, by George A.
Petrides. Houghton Mifflin. 1988.

A Photographic Guide to More than 500 Trees of North America and Europe, by
Roger Phillips. Random House. 1978.  [Includes both native and cultivated
trees; in spite of the title, most photos were taken in England, but it is
still a good book]

The Trees of North America, by Alan Mitchell. Facts On File Publications.
1987. [Also includes cultivated and native trees.]

Wildflowers
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers (there are
separate books for the Eastern Region and the Western Region).  Alfred A.
Knopf Publishers. 1979.  [Lots of good photographs.]

NewcombÕs Wildflower Guide, by Lawrence Newcomb.  Good for the northeastern
United States and adjacent Canada (despite the fact that the photograph on
the cover was taken in California!).  Little, Brown and Co. 1977.

Field guides for trees and wildflowers are available for many individual
states.  If  you are located in the Midwest, let me know and maybe I can
help you with some more local to your area.

Ken Robertson, Illinois Natural History Survey
[email-masked]