How To Identify Grasses: And Grasslike Plants (Paperback)

~ H.D. Harrington (Author) "1. Size. The grass family has been variously estimated to contain between 500 to 600 genera and 7,500 to 10,000 species..." (more)
Key Phrases: first floret, one floret, general floras, New York, United States, Their Vegetative Characters (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There is no easy was to identify grasses. And no one understood this better than H.D. Harrington, who observed thousands of students struggle and learn. His clear, concise, and well-organized guide will continue to be a basic and essential text for use in the classroom or in the field. The book contains over 500 drawings and an illustrated glossary.

About the Author

The late H.D. Harrington was Professor of Botany and Curator of the Herbarium at Colorado State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Swallow Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804007462
• ISBN-13: 978-0804007467
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,872 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Plants > Grasses
  #12 in	Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > By Plant > Grasses
  #31 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Plants > Trees > Seed-Bearing Plants

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

145 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent manual on morphology of these difficult groups., May 21, 1999

By A Customer

As a former student of the late Dr. Harrington who taught me much about plant classification, I highly recommend this book. It is similar to his How to Identify Plants, but the diagrams are much better. It is a very thorough review of the morphology and terminology specific to sedges, rushes, and grasses. These are all very difficult families to identify and there are few books that so thoroughly describe the critical and unique morphology of these plants. This is a knowledge that is critical to the identification of these fascinating and important plants. Dr. Harrington also includes a section on the vegetative characteristics, especially of grasses. For field ecologists like myself, being able to identify plants without the flowers, especially grasses, is critical when doing quantitative sampling. If you are just a beginner in your pursuit of these difficult plants, this is an excellent and valuable resource. But for even the plant scientist this book provides an excellent reference to refresh your memory regarding the unique and important mophology of grasses, sedges, and rushes.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Identify Grasses & Grasslike Plants, April 9, 2003

By	Roy Leggitt (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is practical and systematic. The topic is difficult, at best, and the author gives all the tools and understanding needed to build up your skills. As a consultant that works with native plant materials, I have found this book to be a useful field reference in separating out invasive species.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The title is misleading!, June 29, 2009

By	David Workman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although the book title implies that if we use the book we will be able to identify different grasses, there isn't a shred of information it this book that will allow us to identify any grass species. The book seems to have been created for a class on grass biology. It has a lot of good pictures on the different parts of the grass plant. But for instance if we want to know what Big Bluestem grass looks like, or if we are looking at a plant and want to figure out what species it is, this book does not provide any of that information at all. If you are looking for a companion book to a class on grass biology, this book is great. If you want to try to identify grass species, this book is worthless without a lot of additional information.