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Title: Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification
ISBN: 1892784157
Author:
Thomas J. Elpel
Publicate Date: 2004-01
Publish: 2004-01
List Price: $30.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $18.80
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $19.18
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.80
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| Customer Review: |
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1: excellent resource
My most used book til now has been Audubon Sociey Field Guide to North American Flowers - it lists color pics by color then shape and saves time in honing in on identification. However, there are many wildflowers that do not appear there and this is where Botany in a Day is a great help. You learn to identify plants by family so you are at least in the same family, and possibly sub family or tribe. My previous color picture herb identification is validated for more certainty by reading more about the plant's qualities. Some plants I have found this way, and even if a herb is not identified, I have a pretty good idea what it does based on the family. I enjoy my morning herb tea sitting outside and getting more familiar with the plants and their families - they are my neighbors and dear ones at that. Furthermore, the book describes some of the medicinal benefits and cites some research on those benefits. It is an excellent resource guide, teaching by learning plant-family patterns.
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2: Botany Review
This book is one for the field botanist, but as far as it's promises of learning 43,000 plants quickly and easily it is misleading. It is a cumbersome process for the amateur field botanist. For the seasoned botanist there are errors that taint the qualifications of the author. That said, it makes a good addition to the well-stocked field botany library. It's approach using families for identification makes it useful.
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3: Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification
I've had a life long interest in plants--this book is very helpful in tying it all together and helping me to understand the plant families better. Very readable.
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4: Makes a great first book on the subject
This book ranks with such classics of plant indentification as Agnes Chase's A First Book of Grasses, or Donald Culross Peattie's books on tree indentification. Taking a bird's-eye view and then drilling down from there, it provides an overview of plant structure and evolution as well as many technical details relating to the structure and identification of plants. This would make an excellent first book for anyone wanting to know more about the subject. After this, you can try some of the more detailed field manuals and then try to get your feet wet with some of the real taxonomic keys. These require some knowledge of plant anatomy, but there's nothing that difficult about that, except that having a good memory is a help. But really, it doesn't take that much smarts and anyone can learn to identify the most common trees, flowers, and even fungi in their area with a little time and patience.
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5: Excellent Resource!
Botany in a Day provides an excellent overview to field botany. By learning plant characteristics by family, the reader can more quickly identify their plant by identifying the patterns each plant family presents. The book provides a page or two (or more!) on dozens of the most common families in the northern half of the US. Each plant family section contains additional information about the plant genera represented in this family. The keys to plant families allow the reader to quickly determine what section to turn to. This book is best coupled with a plant field guide to individual species that is grouped by family. You can use the Botany in a Day information to narrow your selection to the family and the field guide to identify the specific species.
I highly recommend this book to both lay and professional people who work with plants.
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