Customer Reviews

Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, Volume 2

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As an undergraduate studying plants, I thought this book would do me some good. I had been told to get the original but it is now out of print. Good thing. The Missouri Botanical Gardens and the Missouri Department of Conservation collaborated together and re-released Julian Steyermark's work, but with new pictures and more information. I have Volume 1 and Volume 2. You can't really just have one and not the other if you're a serious botanist. I am doing a glade restoration and am monitoring the wildflowers that return there after seasonal burnings. With Volume 1 and Volume 2 I am able to identify everything and anything. I didn't think I would like the drawings, but I have since changed my mind. It is much easier to identify plants with drawings than it is to look at a color picture.

The vernacular is a little intimidating, but there is a glossary in the back. I recommend getting a smaller paperback glossary to use in conjunction with this book. This volume includes Dicots- Acanthaceae - Fabaceae. The first part of each mini "chapter" begins with characteristics of the family, then genus, then species. Each genus has a map included of where it has been found and facts about past and current uses of the plant.

I absolutely love these volumes. Volume 1 includes information on climate, glades, prairies, mountains, the ozark region, etc. in Missouri. It is the monocot edition, including pteridophytes and conifers.

This book should be used to key out species, first and foremost. However, you must know what family the plant belongs to. You need to have a basic understanding of different plant families. I suggest bringing a magnifying glass, a blade, tweezers, and a camera into the field when you are identifying plants because they will all come in handy while keying out.

Each Volume is about 1100 pages and is jam packed with information. Because Missouri has mild-hot summers and mild-cold summers it is home to a great number of species of wildflowers. This book can be used as a guide in other states as well because Missouri has a wide ranging climate.

I recommend these volumes to anyone wanting to be able to identify wildflowers and learn more about botany in general.