Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Ferns and their related families: Northeastern and Central North America with a section on species also found in the British Isles and Western Europe (Peterson Field Guides)

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The black and white pen and ink illustrations in this field guide are excellent. Like all Peterson Field Guides, the book begins with a short description of ferns in general and a brief glossary of taxonomic terms particular to ferns. The book is arranged (somewhat frustratingly so for the more experienced Field Botonist) by major plant characterstic. The taxonomic keys are sparce and generally ineffective. Each species identified in the book has a detailed drawing and a description written in easy to understand language. These descriptions include the principle defining characterstics of each fern, and a description of its habit.

The book lacks a information about each ferns geographic distribution and prominance. This sometime leads the amatuer to mis-identifying the sometime confusingly similar fern species.

This book comes in true field guide size. It is light and compact and easily taken to the field. Dispite its weaknesses, I still take it to the field when I go somewhere outside the mid Atlantic after even after six years of wetland delineation field work.

I have found this field guide to be very useful, though frustratingly limited in scope. The illustrations and diagnostic data are very nice, though somewhat limited - for example, immature frond forms (when different from mature) and unique fiddlehead forms are not shown. On the plus side, this guide covers fern allies such as club mosses. Also, don't let the black-and-white illustrations put you off, they carry more useful information than color photos (of which there are some) of a fern would. My most serious beef with this field guide is that it ignores ferns which are marginally hardy or hardy only in the warmer areas of Northeast and Central North America. Don't expect to find information on Thelypteris kunthii, for example. Final analysis: If you are willing to accept its limitations, you will find this guide to be very useful.