Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers

by Doug Ladd

Book Overview

A useful tool for both the novice and the expert, this guide identifies over 250 flowers and grasses. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560442999
• ISBN13: 9781560442998
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: FalconGuide
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference

This book set a high standard for the soon-to-be Falcoln series. The stunning photographs complement the confident text. Ladd's book has been a constant companion when I search out prairie remnants. A professional, consummate work that should find a place on every botanist's bookshelf.

These are all native plants

I felt I should comment on one part of Rissa's review. She mentions that Queen Anne's lace is not in this book, and feels this is a detriment. On the contrary, this is one of the best features of the book: it contains only NATIVE plants, and not many of the invasive, non-native weeds, like Queen Anne's lace, which are very difficult to control in prairies.If you don't see a common plant in this book, it's likely because it is an imported weed.There are many, many "wildflower" identification books that include everything-and-the-kitchen-sink, adding to the common confusion about what a 'wildflower' is. (For instance, Dame's Rocket should be on the 'weed' list, but it's in most of the 'wildflower' mixes.)If you are looking for an all-inclusive book, the Golden Press,"A Guide to Field Identification of Wildflowers of North America", ISBN 0-307-13664-7 is helpful because it includes the weeds, but tells where they came from and how far they have spread across North America. Of course the USDA's PLANTS website (plants.usda.gov) is the best internet source for this technical information.

This book makes it easy

Just as it is hard to look up the spelling of a word in the dictionary, until you know how it is spelled, it can be hard to identify a plant until you know what it is. This book of photographs of common prairie flowers, grouped by color, is pretty easy to flip through until you find the plant at hand. The caveat is that many 'pink' flowers are in the 'purple' section, but this is true of many flowers (few people really consider 'purple coneflower' to be purple.) If you want just one field guide to get you started with these gorgeous plants, this is the one I would recommend.

"the iridescent glow was beautiful and wondrous"

I really like the fact that this book is laid out according to flower color, it makes it so much easier to find the plant I'm trying to identify. I also liked the clear, beautiful photographs as well as the detailed text that provides common and Latin names, family, description and habitat or range for each plant. The book seems very complete with 295 species listed, but I was surprised to find that Queen Anne's Lace isn't in it, which, although it may not be native, is certainly ubiquitious here in the tallgrass prairie where I live.There is a ten-page chapter on how to use the book, a sort of Botany 101, which is very helpful in explaining how to identify prairie plants via what the author calls their "diagnostic features" -- leaves, flowers, overall shape, scent and, in some cases, the sap. The book's cover is sturdy and water-resistant which is nice if you need to set it down on the ground while you take pictures. Also included is a very useful directory of many of America's remaining tallgrass prairie preserves and parks with descriptions plus phone numbers of the government agencies, universities and organizations that oversee them (I was pleasantly surprised at how many times The Nature Conservancy is listed). The book ends with a short bibliography and a very complete index.I bought this book as a companion to "Birding Illinois," by Sheryl De Vore (from the same publisher). De Vore's book covers various Illinois parks and wildlife areas, many of which are prairies and woodlands. I figure I can take both books and look for birds as well as beautiful prairie flowers.

An excellent guide to the wildflowers of the eastern prairie

This guide covers the wildflowers of the tallgrass prairie, which stretches from western Indiana to eastern Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, etc. Each entry is arranged in its section by color, making it easy to find. Each is accompanied by a photograph as well as decriptive text, including the common habitat and range of the flower. I found it easy to use and a necessary addition to my personal library.