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Wildflowers of the Eastern United States by Wilbur H. Duncan and Marion B. Duncan
This is a detailed field guide for the serious naturalist who really wants to learn the wildflowers. The descriptions are clear and concise, and provide diagnostic details of individual species. The photographs are all grouped together and labeled only with the botanical name, the size scale and a cross-reference to the text. (Common names are given in the text.) The plants are arranged by family and genus, and so it may not be as handy to the beginner as other guides that group plants by flower color. However, there is a list of 12 unique or unusual characteristics of plants that gives the user a shortcut to the family. (For example, "Flowers in compound umbels: Apiaceae"; "Stamens numerous" suggests five possible families to consider; "Plants with milky juice" suggests four possible families.) Every few months I like to take a field guide like this to bed and just page through the color photographs; sometimes one of the photos rings a bell and I recognize a flower I had seen but couldn't identify. Wilbur Duncan is professor emeritus of botany at the University of Georgia, and with his wife, Marion, has traveled extensively through the eastern US photographing and studying plants. The Duncans have also written Trees of the Southeastern United States. Steve Christman 5/26/00
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