Guide to the Vascular Plants of Central Florida

9780813007489

0813007488

"Wunderlin has accomplished a major feat, writing a guide where the flora of the state are so diverse. . . . An original and highly significant contribution."--Michael O. Moore, University of Georgia This is the first comprehensive identification manual of the highly diverse flora of Florida, and it will serve as the definitive guide to Florida's vascular plants for years to come. With more than 4,000 kinds of native and nonnative ferns and fern allies, nonflowering seed plants, and flowering seed plants that reproduce outside of cultivation, Florida has the third largest plant diversity of any state in the nation. Some of its plant species are found nowhere else in the world; many of these are endangered. Because of the state's mild climate, many nonnative species--including major pest species--readily become naturalized, contributing nearly one-third of the species of known flora. Wunderlin provides a means to identify these plants through a series of taxonomic keys to family, genus, and species. He gives the up-to-date accepted scientific name of each species, the major nomenclatural synonyms, many common names, the general habitat preference, and, for plants not native to Florida, the region of nativity. Long awaited by biologists, conservationists, gardeners, educators, and environmental consultants, Wunderlin's guide provides for the first time in a single volume a means to identify the abundant and diverse flora of the Sunshine State.