Good uk id book

[mort]

Hi, does anyone know a good book that covers uk native trees and plants? Ideally it will help me id them plus give me a little info. I'm getting better at id's but when I don't know find it hard to narrow it down.
I've looked at a couple that said they were comprehensive guides but I think their definition of comprehensive is a lot different to mine.

Thanks

 

[Paul27]

https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...qOGenInSn4atUOK5iQeGItgocnjtHzdBoC36UQAvD_BwE

Might be of interest to you

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Hi, does anyone know a good book that covers uk native trees and plants? Ideally it will help me id them plus give me a little info. I'm getting better at id's but when I don't know find it hard to narrow it down. I've looked at a couple that said they were comprehensive guides but I think their definition of comprehensive is a lot different to mine.

The best all around ID guide is still probably Rose & O'Reilly <"The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) - How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland">. It doesn't cover everything you might find in the UK (no grasses or sedges), but it is pretty thorough.

The comprehensive UK Flora is Stace's <"New Flora of the British Isles 4th Edition">, which doesn't have many pictures, and requires you to know a few botanical terms (but it does have a glossary).

cheers Darrel

 

[Oldguy]

a good book that covers uk native trees and plants

Could try The Concise British Flora in Colour by W. Keble Martin easy to use but not a definitive text any more. (Nicely illustrated)

Grasses by C.E.Hubbard. These plants are often overlooked but are very important on many many levels. (Line drawings)

The Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants by F.H. Brightman and B.E. Nicholson (Nicely illustrated)

I think that these books are out of print but are available on Amazon and other such places.

Flora of The British Isles by A.R. Clapham, T.G.Tufin and E. Warburg Cambridge University Press ISBN 10: 0521046572 £7.04 from Abe Book.co.uk Wife regards this as the bible but it is a pain to use. Tiny line drawings which illustrate a very logical and vigorous key system for identification. ('A fine print book')

Hope these and others@dw1305 will be of use. The use of DNA will no doubt change all the names.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The Concise British Flora in Colour by W. Keble Martin

I still like Keble-Martin. You need a second hand copy of one of the earlier editions because the plates wore over time.

Grasses by C.E.Hubbard.

There is a really good up-dated edition of this, <Cope and Gray "BSBI Handbook 13: Grasses of the British Isles">.

Flora of The British Isles by A.R. Clapham, T.G.Tufin and E. Warburg Cambridge University Press

Stace is the up-dated version of CT & W.

The use of DNA will no doubt change all the names.

The <"names are changing all the time">.

<"BSBI keep a list">, so you can download the changes.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

Thanks for all the suggestion, I'll have a look at them.

I don't mind being a little out of date with nomenclature it more a personal curiosity thing. I'm also use to it as corals, one of my main interests have been going through massive changes lately.

 

[Oldguy]

Stace is the up-dated version of CT & W.

Nice to see Stace is listing hybrids. I am not a Botanist or a Biologist but I have often though that many 'species' were hybrids or were extreme examples of plant plasticity and would be worth growing under standardised conditions. This raises the thorny issue of what is meant by species, no doubt still an essay question in the Life Sciences. At heart I'm a 'Clumper' but when buying a specific plant I can be a 'Fine Liner'. Still Physicists appear to be content with the duality of matter and I am convinced that we have Schrodinger's cat. All makes for an interesting life.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Nice to see Stace is listing hybrids.

There is a whole book on them Stace, Preston & Pearman <"Hybrid Flora of the British Isles">.

This raises the thorny issue of what is meant by species, no doubt still an essay question in the Life Sciences

It is even more of a question than it was, particularly in <"Conservation">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Tim Harrison]

Hi all, The best all around ID guide is still probably Rose & O'Reilly <"The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) - How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland">. It doesn't cover everything you might find in the UK (no grasses or sedges), but it is pretty thorough. cheers Darrel

That gets my vote as well.
For grasses, sedges, rushes and ferns the Collins Guide is hard to beat, and there is also A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes by Dominic Price, (2016) The Species Recovery Trust.
For mosses and Liverworts, take a look at the British Bryological Society's field guide. Although, apparently the BBS is having problems with it's publishers so it''s unavailable from them atm, they usually sell it for £30.00.