Plants Of The Chihuahuan Desert

Plants are arranged in five sections: Trees and Shrubs, Succulents, Cacti, Wildflowers (further grouped by flower color), and Nonflowering Plants. Each plant profile is illustrated with a drawing by botanist Robert DeWitt Ivey and a photograph by the author.

The Chihuahuan desert is the second largest in North America and its northern, or United States, portion occupies southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and Texas west of the Pecos River. Hot, dry, and windy, the desert is home to a unique community of plants that have adapted to its harsh environment. Visitors to the area will find this volume a practical identification guide, offering descriptions of seventy-five representative species of northern Chihuahuan Desert plants. Each illustrated profile includes the plant’s common and Latin name and a brief description, as well as its role in human history, its relationship to the surrounding flora and fauna, medicinal uses, nutritional value, habitat, toxicity, and other interesting facts.

This guide uses color photographs and brief descriptions to help identify a variety of plants native to the northern Chihuahuan Desert, including Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the Davis Mountains. Split into helpful categories of trees, shrubs, succulents, wildflowers, and ferns, this guide is useful for casual visitors as well as plant enthusiasts. This light-weight, durable laminated guide's six double-panels fold for convenient carrying and use in the field.

Appearing barren and most definitely wild, the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States may look worthless to some, but for Susan Tweit it is an inspiration. In this collection of seven elegant personal essays, she explores undiscovered facets of this seemingly hostile environment. With eloquence, passion, and insight, she describes and reflects on the relationship between the land, history, and people and makes this underappreciated region less barren for those who would share her journeys. "There's often little to this terrain, but to the author it's a beautiful landscape bursting with stories and wildlife, with big cities and small chunks of quietness found in few other places on earth. Tweit's essays have a pleasant style that combines history with personal discovery." —Book Talk "Sense of place is measured by one's awareness of the landscape and the extent to which it dictates thought and behavior. Barren, Wild, and Worthless dramatizes the aspirations, needs, and functional rhythms of life that are revealed and defined by this seventh sense." —Southwestern American Literature

Plants can't move to the shade or migrate to more hospitable climes. They can't seek shelter, and they survive with just eight inches of precipitation a year in the harsh environment of the Chihuahuan Desert of the American Southwest. Yet, they have adapted. Tom Hyden, volunteer at the Desert Arboretum of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, tells the stories of some of these unique adaptations. With text illustrated by Lise Spargo, Hyden also shares information about roles the plants have played in native cultures, their common and Latin names, and some fun facts about deserts and botanists.

A showcase for plant diversity, the Chihuahuan Desert is North America's largest at over 200,000 square miles that include West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. This stunning guide is a full-color celebration of more than 60 flowering plants native to the area.

The Study of Plants in a Whole New Light “Matt Candeias succeeds in evoking the wonder of plants with wit and wisdom.” ―James T. Costa, PhD, executive director, Highlands Biological Station and author of Darwin's Backyard #1 New Release in Nature & Ecology, Plants, Botany, Horticulture, Trees, Biological Sciences, and Nature Writing & Essays In his debut book, internationally-recognized blogger and podcaster Matt Candeias celebrates the nature of plants and the extraordinary world of plant organisms. A botanist’s defense. Since his early days of plant restoration, this amateur plant scientist has been enchanted with flora and the greater environmental ecology of the planet. Now, he looks at the study of plants through the lens of his ever-growing houseplant collection. Using gardening, houseplants, and examples of plants around you, In Defense of Plants changes your relationship with the world from the comfort of your windowsill. The ruthless, horny, and wonderful nature of plants. Understand how plants evolve and live on Earth with a never-before-seen look into their daily drama. Inside, Candeias explores the incredible ways plants live, fight, have sex, and conquer new territory. Whether a blossoming botanist or a professional plant scientist, In Defense of Plants is for anyone who sees plants as more than just static backdrops to more charismatic life forms. In this easily accessible introduction to the incredible world of plants, you’ll find: • Fantastic botanical histories and plant symbolism • Passionate stories of flora diversity and scientific names of plant organisms • Personal tales of plantsman discovery through the study of plants If you enjoyed books like The Botany of Desire, What a Plant Knows, or The Soul of an Octopus, then you’ll love In Defense of Plants.

Environmental and specific diversity in the Chihuahuan desert in general, and in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in particular, has long been recognized as outstanding. This book provides a global ecological overview, together with in-depth studies of specific processes. The Chihuahuan desert is the warmest in North America, and has a complex geologic, climatic and biogeographical history, which affects today’s distribution of vegetation and plants and generates complex phylogeographic patterns. The high number of endemic species reflects this complex set of traits. The modern distribution of environments, including aquatic and subaquatic systems, riparian environments, gypsum dunes and gypsum-rich soils, low levels of phosphorous and organic matter, and high salinity combined with an extreme climate call for a range of adaptations. Plants are distributed in a patchy pattern based on punctual variations, and many of them respond to different resources and conditions with considerable morphological plasticity. In terms of physiological, morphological and ecological variability, cacti were identified as the most important group in specific environments like bajadas, characterized by high diversity values, while gypsophytes and gypsovagues of different phylogenies, including species with restricted distribution and endemics.

The Sonoran Desert, a fragile ecosystem, is under ever-increasing pressure from a burgeoning human population. This ecological atlas of the region's plants, a greatly enlarged and full revised version of the original 1972 atlas, will be an invaluable resource for plant ecologists, botanists, geographers, and other scientists, and for all with a serious interest in living with and protecting a unique natural southwestern heritage. An encyclopedia as well as an atlas, this monumental work describes the taxonomy, geographic distribution, and ecology of 339 plants, most of them common and characteristic trees, shrubs, or succulants. Also included is valuable information on natural history and ethnobotanical, commercial, and horticultural uses of these plants. The entry for each species includes a range map, an elevational profile, and a narrative account. The authors also include an extensive bibliography, referring the reader to the latest research and numerous references of historical importance, with a glossary to aid the general reader. Sonoran Desert Plants is a monumental work, unlikely to be superseded in the next generation. As the region continues to attract more people, there will be an increasingly urgent need for basic knowledge of plant species as a guide for creative and sustainable habitation of the area. This book will stand as a landmark resource for many years to come.

Marfa Garden is a celebration of more than 110 flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert. Marfa, the internationally acclaimed arts and cultural mecca in Far West Texas, sits squarely in the desert--North America's second largest, spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona--and a surprising showcase for colorful plant diversity. More than 360 stunning color images are presented in a style reminiscent of naturalist Karl Blossfeldt's Art Forms in Nature, with an array of vines, grasses, trees, herbs, shrubs, cacti, and succulents ranging from the little known to the popular to the iconic. Designed as a companion to the lavishly illustrated coffee table book of the same title, this compact field guide's photographs show plants in year-round cycles, with buds, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seed pods, and winter texture and color. Also included are introductory essays, a discussion of each plant's common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, and USDA classification, as well as abundant space for gardening notes. A visual appendix of botanical and gardening information consists of illustrations relating close-up botanical details. Everyday gardeners, naturalists, landscape designers, architects, and anyone interested in dry gardens or the Southwest will find great value and even joy in this essential field guide.