Small enough to carry in a backpack, this comprehensive guide explores the many diverse natural communities of Michigan, providing detailed descriptions, distribution maps, photographs, lists of characteristic plants, suggested sites to visit, and a dichotomous key for aiding field identification. This is a key tool for those seeking to understand, describe, document, conserve, and restore the diversity of natural communities native to Michigan.

The first field guide to all of Vermont's natural communities

A comprehensive guide to Michigan’s wild-growing seed plants

Updated edition of the classic botanical guide to the Great Lakes region

Cattails grow in a marsh, pitcher plants grow in a bog, jewelweed grows in a swamp, right? Do sandhill cranes live among sandy hills? Frogs live near lakes and ponds, but can they live on prairies, too? What is a pine barrens, an oak opening, a calcareous fen? Wisconsin’s Natural Communities is an invitation to discover, explore, and understand Wisconsin’s richly varied natural environment, from your backyard or neighborhood park to stunning public preserves.Part 1 of the book explains thirty-three distinct types of natural communities in Wisconsin—their characteristic trees, beetles, fish, lichens, butterflies, reptiles, mammals, wildflowers—and the effects of geology, climate, and historical events on these habitats. Part 2 describes and maps fifty natural areas on public lands that are outstanding examples of these many different natural communities: Crex Meadows, Horicon Marsh, Black River Forest, Maribel Caves, Whitefish Dunes, the Blue Hills, Avoca Prairie, the Moquah Barrens and Chequamegon Bay, the Ridges Sanctuary, Cadiz Springs, Devil’s Lake, and many others. Intended for anyone who has a love for the natural world, this book is also an excellent introduction for students. And, it provides landowners, public officials, and other stewards of our environment with the knowledge to recognize natural communities and manage them for future generations.

Prairies and Savannas in Michigan gives a complete understanding of these dynamic systems, the plants and animals they support, the ecological processes that sustain them, and current efforts to restore these valuable pieces of Michigan's natural heritage. Intended for general readers, Prairies and Savannas in Michigan clearly describes the variety of natural habitats and itemizes noteworthy species found in each.

This new and updated edition of Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota combines the practicality of a field guide with all the basic information homeowners need to create an effective landscape design. The plant profiles section includes comprehensive descriptions of approximately 150 flowers, trees, shrubs, vines, evergreens, grasses, and ferns that grew in Minnesota before European settlement, as well as complete information on planting, maintenance, and landscape uses for each plant. The book also includes complete information on how to garden successfully in Minnesota’s harsh climate and how to install and maintain an attractive, low-maintenance home landscape suitable for any lifestyle.

This field guide to Indiana's rich butterfly fauna covers all 149 species of butterflies and their close relatives, the skippers. Belth also offers an introduction to the natural history of butterflies --

Describing more than 1,100 species, this is a comprehensive guide to wildflowers in Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ontario. A new introduction to this second edition discusses wildflowers in the context of their natural communities. Packed with detailed information, this field guide is compact enough to be handy for outdoors lovers of all kinds, from novice naturalists to professional botanists. It includes: • more than 1,100 species from 459 genera in 100 families • many rare and previously overlooked species • 2,100 color photographs and 300 drawings • Wisconsin distribution maps for almost all plants • brief descriptions including distinguishing characteristics of the species • Wisconsin status levels for each species of wildflower (native, invasive, endangered, etc.) • derivation of Latin names.