> Colleagues,
>> I am planning to teach a spring flora this May here in Wisconsin.
> Fortunately we have a good, but dated, field guide (Fassett's Spring
> Flora of Wisconsin, 1976). I was planning to use Al Radford's
> Fundamental of Plant Systematics as a text for the "lecture" protion of
> the course. I've just learned that the text is out of print. Do any of
> you know of a similar book, in terms of content and level of difficulty,
> that is in print? Or do you know where used copies may be available?
> Thanks for your assistance.
>> John Clausz
> --
Depending upon the scope of your course, I can recommend several good texts.
Plant Systematics, 2nd Ed. (1986) by Jones and Luchsinger is a
text that I am most familiar with (used it in an advanced woody plant
systematics course at Purdue Univ.) It does a fine job of covering
many of the general aspects of systematics, including the history,
nomenclutter, and tools. It also has an overview of pteridophytes,
gymnosperms, and angiosperms (including the basic characters of most of
the families). Cost: approx. $60
Vascular Plant Families (1977) by Smith is a really good book
that I became familiar with as a TA for an intro plant classification
course at Purdue Univ. This book (paperback and therefore affordable)
had OUTSTANDING illustrations. It covers all aspects of morphology in
great detail (both text and illustrations). It is arranged
phylogenetically, and covers most of the major families of Angiosperms
(also a section on Pteridophytes). This book doesn't cover theory and
practice of systematics, though. But great for botanizing!
Contemporary Plant Systematics, by Dennis Woodland is one that I
know by reputation only. It has received good reviews (and the newest
edition has a CD-Rom with photo images). I will try to find some
publication info on it. Woodland is on the faculty at Andrews
University.
Good luck!
Michael
---
Michael S Dosmann
dosmann at iastate.edu . . .
Graduate Research Assistant . .
Department of Horticulture . . .
Iowa State University
