Customer Reviews

Plant Systematics

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the best plant systematics texts on the market. Highly recommend for any college-level botanist or aspiriing botanist. Covers a large subject in a lot of depth, and does so in a very informative and easy-to-understand manner.

This is the book that competes with the award-winning "Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach" for the spot as the introductory text on modern plant systematics and comes out ahead. Quite noticeable are the color photographs (instead of the sometimes not so brilliant line-drawings) which makes this a more friendly book to leaf through. Also noticeable is a hefty chapter on plant morphology. This book appears to be considerably more balanced than its competitor.

However, the book is not without its downsize: in this age of brilliant color printing the photographs do appear a little lackluster. Browsing through the chapter on nomenclature some errors catch the eye (not untypical; nomenclature not being a favorite topic among plant taxonomists): perhaps the worst is that etymology of family names is given! Ouch.

ok, this book has the detail you might like if you plan on attending graduate school specializing Botany. Otherwise, its long winded sections with awkward wording will drive you up a tree to escape its insufferable language. The author could of simplified most sections or included bullet point summaries, but no. Its simply a bad example of somebody trying to show off their knowledge in a overly-complex way.

Also, the reviews above are actually by the publisher reps, not real people who use this book for their college courses. If you have a choice between books, go another route and save yourself some grief.