Botany Illustrated: Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families [Paperback]

Janice Glimn-Lacy (Author), Peter B. Kaufman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0387288708 | ISBN-13: 978-0387288703 | Edition: 2nd

This easy-to-use book helps you acquire a wealth of fascinating information about plants. There are 130 pages with text, each facing 130 pages of beautiful illustrations. Each page is a separate subject. Included is a coloring guide for the realistic illustrations. The illustration pages are composed of scientifically accurate line drawings with the true sizes of the plants indicated. Using colored pencils and the authors’ instructions, you can color the various plant structures to stand out in vivid clarity. Your knowledge of plants increases rapidly as you color the illustrations. There is a balanced selection of subjects that deal with all kinds of plants. However, the emphasis is on flowering plants, which dominate the earth. Drawings show common houseplants, vegetables, fruits, and landscape plants. They also show common weeds, wild flowers, desert plants, water plants, and crop plants. Botany Illustrated, Second Edition, has three sections. An Introduction to Plants gives you facts on everything from cells to seeds. The Major Groups section is from fungi to algae, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. In Flowering Plant Families are magnolias to asters, and water-plantains to orchids, with the families of major interest included. You will find plants used for food, ornamentals, lumber, medicines, herbs, dyes, and fertilizers, whether wild or poisonous, or of special importance to our Earth’s ecosystem. Topics that will be of interest to you include: Why leaves ‘turn’ color in autumn How certain plants devour insects How a flower develops into a fruit with seeds Why some plants only flower at certain times of the year How water, nutrients, and sugars move within a plant, including tall trees How flowers are pollinated The ‘inside’ story of how plants manufacture their own food How plants are named and classified How vines ‘climb’ Why ‘pinching’ makes plants ‘bushy’ How plants reproduce sexually Why shoots grow towards light How specific leaf colors can indicate specific mineral deficiencies Botany Illustrated, Second Edition,  is especially easy to use because of its great flexibility. You can read the text and look at the drawings, read the text and color the drawings, or just enjoy coloring the drawings. No matter where your interests lead you, you will quickly find your knowledge of plants growing! Thus, this beautiful book will be of great value to students, scientists, artists, crafters, naturalists, home gardeners, teachers, and all plant lovers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Botany Illustrated, Second Edition This easy-to-use book helps you acquire a wealth of fascinating information about plants. There are 130 pages with text, each facing 130 pages of beautiful illustrations. Each page is a separate subject. Included is a coloring guide for the realistic illustrations. The illustration pages are composed of scientifically accurate line drawings with the true sizes of the plants indicated. Using colored pencils and the authors’ instructions, you can color the various plant structures to stand out in vivid clarity. Your knowledge of plants increases rapidly as you color the illustrations. There is a balanced selection of subjects that deal with all kinds of plants. However, the emphasis is on flowering plants, which dominate the earth. Drawings show common houseplants, vegetables, fruits, and landscape plants. They also show common weeds, wild flowers, desert plants, water plants, and crop plants. Botany Illustrated has three sections. An Introduction to Plants gives you facts on everything from cells to seeds. The Major Groups section is from fungi to algae, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. In Flowering Plant Families are magnolias to asters, and water-plantains to orchids, with the families of major interest included. You will find plants used for food, ornamentals, lumber, medicines, herbs, dyes, and fertilizers, whether wild or poisonous, or of special importance to our Earth’s ecosystem. Topics that will be of interest to you include: Why leaves ‘turn’ color in autumn How certain plants devour insects How a flower develops into a fruit with seeds Why some plants only flower at certain times of the year How water, nutrients, and sugars move within a plant, including tall trees How flowers are pollinated The ‘inside’ story of how plants manufacture their own food How plants are named and classified How vines ‘climb’ Why ‘pinching’ makes plants ‘bushy’ How plants reproduce sexually Why shoots grow towards light How specific leaf colors can indicate specific mineral deficiencies Botany Illustrated is especially easy to use because of its great flexibility. You can read the text and look at the drawings, read the text and color the drawings, or just enjoy coloring the drawings. No matter where your interests lead you, you will quickly find your knowledge of plants growing! Thus, this beautiful book will be of great value to students, scientists, artists, crafters, naturalists, home gardeners, teachers, and all plant lovers.

About the Author

Janice Glimn-Lacy, B.S. Botany, is a graduate of the University of Michigan. Since 1976 she has been a free-lance botanical illustrator and is Instructor of Botanical drawing and illustration for The University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens Adult Education Program. She is a member of the Michigan Botanical Club and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. She has illustrated Practical Botany (published by Reston), Michigan Trees (The University of Michigan Press), several Ph.D. theses, and many botanical journal articles. Peter B. Kaufman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Biology Emeritus in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) at the University of Michigan and is currently Senior Scientist, University of Michigan Integrative Medicine Program (MIM). He received his B.Sc. in Plant Science from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of California, Davis in 1954 under the direction of Professor Katherine Esau. He did post-doctoral research as a Muellhaupt Fellow at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. He has been a Visiting Research Scholar at University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; University opf Saskatoon, Saskatoon, Canada; University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana; USDA Plant Hormone Laboratory, BARC-West, Beltsville, Maryland; Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan; Lund University, Lund, Sweden; International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Banos, Philippines; and Hawaiian Sugar Cane Planters’ Association, Aiea Heights, Hawaii. Dr. Kaufman is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB) in 1995. He served on the Editorial Board of Plant Physiology for ten years and is the author of more than 220 research papers. He has published eight professional books to date and taught popular courses on Plants, People, and the Environment, Plant Biotechnology, and Practical Botany at the University of Michigan. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) BARD Program with Israel, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Xylomed Research, Inc, and Pfiser Pharmaceutical Research. He produced with help of Alfred Slote and Marcia Jablonski a 20-part TV series entitled, “House Botanist.” He was past chairman of the Michigan Natural Areas Council (MNAC), past president of the Michigan Botanical Club (MBC), and former Secretary-Treasurer of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB). He is currently doing research on natural products of medicinal value in plants in the University of Michigan Medical School in the laboratory of Stephen F. Bolling, M.D. and serves on the research staff of MIM.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2nd edition (March 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387288708
• ISBN-13: 978-0387288703
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you like to color and flip pages..., August 16, 2009

By 

Thomas S. Burr (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Botany Illustrated: Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families (Paperback)

My father used to remark, when offered coffee with cream, "If I wanted a milkshake, I would have asked for one." My (equally snide) remark concerning this book: "If I wanted a coloring book, I would have asked for one." As such, it is a nice one, with simplified outline drawings suitable for coloring. The information presented is fairly basic but well presented. The problem is that the information page for each set of drawings wound up on the obverse side of the drawing page, rather than side-by-side in a double page spread. This makes it so inconvenient (flipping back and forth to see the drawings, then the information), that the book is almost useless as a learning device. Seeing unrelated information and drawings side-by-side is quite confusing. And, of course, the price is a bit high.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very user friendly botany book, February 12, 2007

By 

Josi Martin (England) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Botany Illustrated: Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families (Paperback)

Very pleased that this is both a botany book, covering basic principles of botany, and at the same time an 'adult' colouring book (a la Anatomy or Physiology colouring books), which allows you to actively reinforce your learning by colouring in the plant sections accompanying what you are reading. Very nice book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars botany illustrated, February 8, 2008

By 

Norman F. Hunter (colorado springs, co, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Botany Illustrated: Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families (Paperback)

This is an excellent coloring book with outstanding detail. Just be aware you need to purchase colored pencils. I spend an hour each evening coloring a few pages. Its a great learning tool!.