Hawaii's Ferns and Fern Allies is the first comprehensive survey of Hawaii's ferns to be published in more than 100 years. The book covers endemic, indigenous, and naturalized ferns and fern allies (including rare and endangered taxa), providing dichotomous keys, basionyms and synonyms, technical descriptions and distributions, a glossary, and statistical information. The author addresses unresolved taxonomic problems and offers suggestions for future research. He includes information from Hawaiian folklore and mythology, describes uses of ferns by native Hawaiians, and updates Hawaiian common names. More than 100 line drawings illustrate all 222 species, varieties, and forms, and some hybrids. The volume is based on extensive fieldwork, studies of herbarium collections worldwide, and consultations with pteridologists, local ecologists, and collectors. It provides the much-needed scientific basis for a new, worldwide appreciation of Hawaiian ferns and fern allies and for major efforts to protect and conserve them. This well-researched and highly readable book will be enthusiastically received by amateur and professional naturalists, fern enthusiasts, and professional botanists.

He includes information from Hawaiian folklore and mythology, describes uses of ferns by native Hawaiians, and updates Hawaiian common names. More than one hundred line drawings illustrate all 222 species, varieties, and forms, and some hybrids." "This well-researched and highly readable book will be enthusiastically received by amateur and professional naturalists, fern enthusiasts, and professional botanists."--BOOK JACKET.

A fern-lover once wrote: “If you wish to know ferns you must follow them.” Hawaiʻi, with approximately two hundred species of ferns and fern allies, is the ideal place to begin the journey, and Ferns of Hawaiʻi the ideal guide. Written for those who wish to become followers of these delightfully subtle plants, this introductory work begins with a description of Hawaiʻi’s ferns and their ecology. Sections on where to find ferns, their use by Hawaiians, and common, Hawaiian, and scientific names are provided. With the aid of color and black and white photographs, naturalist Kathy Valier describes more than sixty of the most common ferns growing wild in Hawaiʻi, from the tiny water fern azolla to the wiry masses of the scrambling uluhe. Information on habitat and distribution accompanies each description.

Hawaiian Plant Life has been written with both the layperson and professional interested in Hawai‘i’s natural history and flora in mind. In addition to significant text describing landforms and vegetation, the evolution of Hawaiian flora, and the conservation of native species, the book includes almost 875 color photographs illustrating nearly two-thirds of native Hawaiian plant species as well as a concise description of each genus and species shown. The work can be used either as a stand-alone reference or as a companion to the two-volume Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i. Learning more about threatened and endangered plants is essential to conserving them, and there is no more endangered flora in the world today than that of the Hawaiian Islands. Striking species complexes such as the silverswords and the remarkable lobeliads represent unique stories of adaptive radiation that make the Hawai‘i a living laboratory for evolution. Public appreciation for Hawaiian biodiversity requires outreach and education that will determine the future conservation of this rich heritage, and Hawaiian Plant Life has been designed to help fill that need.

The most comprehensive guide to Michigan's ferns and related plants

Nearly every life form found among North American flowering plants is represented in Arizona. This amazing diversity is partly explained by the fact that the altitudinal range extends from a few feet above sea level to approximately 12,000 feet at the summit of the San Francisco Peaks. The life zone range from Arctic-Alpine on these peaks to Lower Sonoran in the southwest and Subtropical in the extreme south. The main objective of this book is to provide means for identifying the approximately 3438 species of flowering plants, ferns, and fern-allies growing without cultivation in Arizona. Keys for identification of the families, genera, and species are provided. Under each species the authors give the geographical distribution within and outside Arizona, and usually the altitudinal range and time of flowering. They describe economic uses, toxic or other properties, and ornamental value of many plants, giving particular attention to the utilization of native plants by the large Indian population of the state. Introductory chapters describe the topography, geology, soils, and climate of Arizona, the several types of vegetation in relation to the physical conditions, and the proportional representation of the larger plant families. There is also a brief account of botanical explorations in Arizona since 1832. This is the only available work on the flora of Arizona that includes the results of intensive, botanical research in the state during the past twenty years. It is based on an earlier publication, Flowering Plants and Ferns of Arizona, issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1942 and now out of print. For the present revision, a supplementary section of more than fifty pages has been prepared under the direction of John Thomas Howell and Elizabeth McClintock of the California Academy of Sciences. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1960.

Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2003, the status of many important invasive plants around the world has changed dramatically. Species have extended their ranges, new literature has been accumulated, and control methods have been improved. Research on some plant invaders has also focused on the species' ecology and impacts, confirming that invasive plants continue to pose serious threats to species and ecosystems. Given their range expansions and introduction via international trade, these problems will only become more serious in the future. Including colour images of each species, this up-to-date reference guide on the most important plant invaders is an invaluable tool for both researchers and policy makers.

Not since Willam A. Bryan's 1915 landmark compendium, Hawaiian Natural History, has there been a single-volume work that offers such extensive coverage of this complex but fascinating subject. Illustrated with more than two dozen color plates and a hundred photographs and line drawings, Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution updates both the earlier publication and subsequent works by compiling and synthesizing in a uniform and accessible fashion the widely scattered information now available. Readers can trace the natural history of the Hawaiian Archipelago through the book's twenty-eight chapters or focus on specific topics such as island formation by plate tectonics, plant and animal evolution, flightless birds and their fossil sites, Polynesian migrational history and ecology, the effects of humans and exotic animals on the environment, current conservation efforts, and the contributions of the many naturalists who visited the islands over the centuries and the stories behind their discoveries. An extensive annotated bibliography and a list of audio-visual materials will help readers locate additional sources of information.