Field Manual of Michigan Flora

This is strictly a key. There are no pictures only descriptive characteristics. Excellent field guide for keying out plants. Flower oriented but still useable when flowers are no longer present if you have a good idea of what you’re looking at.

Book contains a thorough inventory of Michigan plant species, even in Wisconsin this book has been extremely helpful. If you enjoy a plant ID book that contains a lot of photos, this is not the book for you. I really enjoyed the addition of the Michigan counties in which the species can be found! Four stars because I would prefer more photographs.

I bought this book to use in conjunction with a grouse hunting book I'm currently reading, for the purpose of identifying certain plants referenced in the grouse hunting book. Perhaps it is just me, but the title of the book (using the terms "field manual") and the cover (having nice colored photos of plants) led me to believe this was a book filled with colored photos and explain lagoons of Michigan plants; however, it is not. There are no pictures in this book. It appears to be extremely detailed however, likely aimed at the very dedicated or experienced botanist. I might just keep it for reference, but, unfortunately, it does it serve my original intended purchase. The way the title and cover misled me left me docking it one star, but I must note that I did not read this book, so I know nothing of the contents or substance.

Field Manual of Michigan Flora is a one volume compilation and updating of the original three volumes of Michigan Flora, which were published over a 40 year period and represent the lifetime work of the late Professor Ed Voss. Dr. Reznijeck, who co-authored this edition, is a superb botanist and taxonomist in his own right. In my opinion, the most outstanding feature of this flora is that it is based on careful examination of hundreds of thousands of herbarium specimens, supplemented by decades of field experience. The results are some of the best dichotomous keys for identifying plants that I have ever used, along with unusually reliable maps showing the range of each native and naturalized species within the state. The keys do require some basic knowledge of the nomenclature for the taxonomic features of the relevant genus or family, and there are no photographs or line drawings of any species, so the casual naturalist should be forewarned. There are plenty of alternative field guides for people who prefer to identify plants by matching pictures, but this flora should be your first choice if you wish to identify any seed plant growing wild in Michigan.

If you are interested in the native range of a plant by country, it is well worth the purchase. There is a map with each country marked where it has been found. Information is given if the plants were likely escaped from cultivation. It also gives some cultural info like grows in swallow water, fens, or maple beech woodlands. One thing it is lacking is a list of generally found plant associates.It gives extra information on identifying the plant when there is a similar plant in the area, or may mention what it could be confused with. Gives information on hybrids too.This is a good reference book for helping get a better understanding of what grows where and some insight into how to manage your land.

The positives:+Updated nomenclature and species concepts. Can replace the use of the Gleason and Cronquist manual in the Great Lakes region for the most part, since it covers most of the species in the adjacent states.+Alphabetically arranged by family then genus after an initial arrangement into of gymnosperms, monocots, and dicots. Makes it easy to find things.+Updated Michigan distribution maps, including elimination of species previously misidentified+Excellent nested indented keys. I already used in the field this spring, and it proved to get me the names with ease.+Excellent concise statements of habitat and when a species was first documented in the stateThe negatives:-Where are the ferns? A little disappointing, but the online treatment (at UofM herbarium website) includes maps and keys to all Michigan ferns and fern allies. While this treatment succeeds in consolidating the three original volumes of Michigan Flora into one, the addition of ferns would still require a second volume.Finally, I should note that the volume is still meant for someone with a little technical savvy in plant identification as opposed to a novice wildflower enthusiast; there are no illustrations. Not a negative, but just to clarify what you're getting into.

Field Manual of Michigan Flora (E. G. Voss and A. A. Reznicek) is a recent (2012) update to the earlier three-volume set "Michigan Flora," by the same authors. At nearly 1000 pages, this hardbound book is a bit hefty to be called a "field manual," but it is an essential reference work for anyone seriously interested in the botany of Michigan or the upper Midwest. It is not a beginner's guide; there are no photographs and the treatments are terse and jargon-filled. The content is mostly keys, distributional dot maps, and range and habitat information. Additional descriptive information is provided for many species, though this is not general and is often lacking. Information updated from the earlier work includes phylogeny and circumscriptions, species included in (and excluded from) the flora, and dot maps.The book is printed on quality paper with a good binding. For those having the necessary background it is an excellent value.

This product isn’t what was described. Its only part one and there was no mention of there being multiple books. The publisher is different, the page numbers are half of what it should be and the author is only Edward G Voss, no coauthor.

This was recommended to me by a conservation biologist. I needed more information about plants that grow in Southern Ontario than most field guides provide. Happily Michigan and Ontario have a huge overlap of flora.This is very technical and might not be accessible enough to people who are new to amateur field botany or who are just looking for a casual guide.

I would recommend this book for plant lovers. Easy guide to follow for plant in the region identification. Perfect condition when received.

A lot of great information in this book, but no pictures at all which for me makes it not very useful as a field guide.

Great book.