Sources for Plant Identification Books

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Below is a list of some of the more useful plant identification books, some commentary on their utility, and a source for obtaining them online (usually Amazon but most are available from a host of online booksellers so don't feel any obligation to use Amazon). Many may be available locally from bookstores. Many local bookstores will order any book in print. Amazon also has links to a group of used book stores and many of these books can be bought used for a significant savings (don't forget to include shipping and handling charges when comparing prices). Some of the most useful books are out of print. These can only be obtained from the used book market. The internet is a good place to locate out of print books but I have not included any out-of-print books here.

 

Herb, Flower, and Grass identification:

• Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians by Dennis Horn and Tavia Cathcart, 2005, Lone Pine Publishing and the Tennessee Native Plant Society. This is the newest flower book for our area and it is the best. Good pictures with concise information readily accessible. If you are going to ID flowers for the course, this is a must.
• A Field Guide to Wildflowers: Northeastern and North-Central North America by Roger Tory Peterson, 1974, Houghton Mifflin. The paperback edition will have a different date of publication. An excellent book that separates the flowers by color but there is no key.
• Wildflowers Of The Eastern United States by Wilbur H. Duncan and Marion B. Duncan , 2005 (the paperback edition), U. of Ga Press. A good book for our area but there is no key, so ID is by the page flipping method.
• National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region by John W. Thieret, William A. Niering, and Nancy C. Olmstead, 2001, Chanticleer Press. A good book with lots of pictures. The book separates the flowers by color and then by their general form, so you flip only through a limited portion of the pictures.
• Common Weeds of the United States (Paperback) by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1971, Dover Press. A very comprehensive selection of plants. The book is not geared towards those plants with showy flowers but does cover the most common herbaceous plants. There is no key and the plants are arranged taxonomically, which is little help if you have no foreknowledge of the group to which your plant belongs.

Tree identification:

• Trees of North America : A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated by C. Frank Brockman, Rebecca Marrilees, 2001, St. Martins Press. This is an update of one of the venerable Golden Guide series nature books. It has trees from the entire contiguous 48 states ( with a key).
• Smithsonian Handbooks: Trees by Allen J. Coombes, 2002, Dorling Kimberly, New York, NY. This is another good general book with a picture key.
• The Tree Identification Book: A new method for the practical identification and recognition of trees by George W. D. Symonds and Stephen V. Chelminski, 1958, William Morrow & Co. A venerable but still unusual approach to tree identification by amateurs.
• National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region by Elbert L. Little, 1980, Knopf, New York, NY. This is a good general reference for our area and it includes a key.
• A Field Guide to Eastern Trees by George A. Petrides and Janet Wehr.
• Trees of Georgia and Adjacent States by Claud L. Brown and L. Katherine Kirkman, 1990, Timber Press. An excellent book for our purposes.
• Guide to the Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Tennessee by B. Eugene Wofford and Edward W. Chester, 2002, Univ. of Tennessee Press. Another excellent guide to local plants.

Shrub identification:

• Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast: Landscaping Uses and Identification by Leonard E. Foote and Samuel B. Jones Jr., 1998, Timber Press. A good collection with additional information useful if one is interested in cultivating the plants.
• (The last book in the previous section also covers shrubs and vines)
  

Forest Plant identification:

• Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses by James H Miller and Karl V. Miller, 2005, the University of Georgia Press. This book focuses on the ecology of forest species, covers many species in our area, and has excellent descriptions (includes a key to species found in the book).

Last updated July 15, 2013