Plant Life of Kentucky is the first comprehensive guide to all the ferns, flowering herbs, and woody plants of the state. This long-awaited work provides identification keys for Kentucky’s 2,600 native and naturalized vascular plants, with notes on wildlife/human uses, poisonous plants, and medicinal herbs. The common name, flowering period, habitat, distribution, rarity, and wetland status are given for each species, and about 80 percent are illustrated with line drawings. The inclusion of 250 additional species from outside the state (these species are “to be expected” in Kentucky) broadens the regional coverage, and most plants occurring from northern Alabama to southern Ohio to the Mississippi River (an area of wide similarity in flora) are examined, including nearly all the plants of western and central Tennessee. The author also describes prehistoric and historical changes in the flora, natural regions and plant communities, significant botanists, current threats to plant life, and a plan for future studies. Plant Life of Kentucky is intended as a research tool for professionals in biology and related fields, and as a resource for students, amateur naturalists, and others interested in understanding and preserving our rich botanical heritage.

Aquatic Dicotyledons of North America: Ecology, Life History, and Systematics brings together a wealth of information on the natural history, ecology, and systematics of North American aquatic plants. Most books on aquatic plants have a taxonomic focus and are intended primarily for identification. Instead, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the biology of major aquatic species by compiling information from numerous sources that lie scattered among the primary literature, herbarium databases, and other reference materials. Included dicotyledon species are those having an obligate (OBL) wetland status, a designation used in the USACE National Wetland Plant List. Recent phylogenetic analyses are incorporated and rationale is provided for interpreting this information with respect to species relationships. This diverse assemblage of information will be useful to a wide range of interests including academic researchers, wildlife managers, students, and virtually anyone interested in the natural history of aquatic and wetland plants. Although focusing specifically on North America, the cosmopolitan distribution of many aquatic plants should make this an attractive text to people working virtually anywhere outside of the region as well. This book is an essential resource for assisting with wetland delineation.

Flora of North America brings together for the first time ever in a concise and easy to understand format information on all of the plants growing spontaneously in North America north of Mexico. Volume 24 of Flora North America is one of two volumes on grasses to be published in this series (Volume 25, though it follows sequentially, was published in 2003). Together they will provide a comprehensive, authoritative, illustrated account of this important group of plants. Most of the species treated are either native to North America north of Mexico or are introduced species that are now established in the region, but there are many that do not fit into these categories. Among the additional species are several that the USDA has identified as major weed threats; and others that are known only as cultivated plants, some being cultivated for their ornamental value, others as sources for human food or animal forage. For instance, volume 24 includes such ecologically important genera as Elymus (wheatgrasses), Poa (bluegrasses), and Festuca (fescues), economically important species such as Triticum (wheat), Hordeum (barley), Oryza (rice), and Zizania (wild rice), several ornamental species, including some bamboos, and noxious weeds such as Elymus repens (quackgrass), and Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass). The volume includes identification keys, descriptions, line drawings, and ecological characteristics for each of the species; distribution maps for the native and established species; and a list of commonly encountered synonyms for the accepted names. The treatments, each of which has been extensively reviewed, are based on a combination of original observations and critical review of the literature.