Shinners & Mahler's
Illustrated Flora of North
Central Texas
 |
George
M. Diggs, Jr.
Department of Biology and Center for Environmental
Studies
Austin College, Sherman, Texas
& Research Associate, Botanical
Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), Fort Worth
Barney L. Lipscomb
Assistant Director, Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Robert J. O'Kennon
Research Associate, Botanical Research Institute of Texas
The Illustrated Flora of North
Central Texas is now available online.
It represents the first major portion of the Texas flora
to be available digitally. Keys, descriptions, and
illustrations for more than 2,200 species (nearly 46% of
Texas plants) are available in Adobe pdf format.
To purchase a hard copy
|
Dust jacket art, 226 line drawing
illustrations, and artistic direction by Linny Heagy,
Designer/Illustrator; copyright 1999 - e-mail: a0005835@airmail.net
Part of the Illustrated Texas Floras Project --
A collaborative project of the
Austin College Center for Environmental Studies and the
Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Shinners & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, is the
first fully illustrated flora for any region of Texas or adjacent
states. It is the most comprehensive guide to a large portion of
the diverse plant life of Texas, and covers all the native and
naturalized vascular plants known to occur in North Central
Texas, an area about the size of Kentucky. The book presents
information on the plant life of the region to meet the needs of
students, teachers, wildflower enthusiasts, gardeners, ranchers,
farmers, naturalists, conservationists, environmental
consultants, researchers, and the general public. It includes
2,233 species, or nearly half of the plants known for the entire
state of Texas.
A number of features have been incorporated to make the book
more useful to non-specialists. Line drawing illustrations
are provided for all species, with color
photographs for 174 species. The inviting layout, vegetation
maps, and extensive introductory
materials on the vegetation, geology, soils, climate, and
presettlement conditions make the book useful to a wide audience.
A excerpt from the introduction on introduced
species is available on-line. [See this link for a close-up
of the dust
jacket].
Also of general interest are a number of appendices on topics
such as, botanically
related internet addresses, conservation
organizations, taxonomy,
phylogeny (evolutionary history), endemic species, changes
in scientific names, collecting
herbarium specimens, lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) host
plant information, books
for the study of native plants, suggested native ornamentals,
and sources for native plants.
The taxonomic treatments include family and
generic synopses, keys and descriptions, derivations of
scientific names, characters helpful for the field recognition of
plant families, notes on toxic/poisonous and useful plants, and
references to supporting literature. For scientists there is a
literature cited section with nearly 3,000 references. This is
the largest literature compliation to date on the flora of Texas.
An online database is available to search for any of the 2,223 species.
An online literature cited is available to search for any of nearly 3,000
references.
A review by
Marshall C. Johnston (author of the Manual of the Vascular
Plants of Texas) is available.
To purchase a hard copy
For information about future publications see the
Illustrated
Texas Floras Project page.
