Flora Of North America Introduction

To be published in 14 volumes over the next 12 years, this long-awaited synoptic compendium represents the first and only comprehensive taxonomic guide to the extraordinary diversity of plant life blanketing our continent north of Mexico--including Greenland and the St. Pierre and Miquelon islands. The collaborative effort of more than 30 major U.S. and Canadian botanical institutions, it revises and synthesizes literally thousands of floristic monographs and regional floras published over the last three centuries. But more than that, it distills the original herbarium, laboratory, and field work of hundreds of contributors--all of them leading botanists and taxonomic authorities who have joined forces to develop this century's premier tool for identifying, understanding, and conserving North America's priceless floristic heritage. Concise, easy to use, and beautifully bound and illustrated, Flora of North America is an indispensable working resource for botanists, conservationists, ecologists, agronomists, foresters, range and land managers, horticulturists,--anyone with a serious interest in the distribution, habitat, morphology, and survival of the wide-ranging plant life around us. Each of its taxonomic volumes brings together the full spectrum of critical botanical data, from basic descriptions to chromosome numbers. The entries also correct erroneous information, qualify misapplied variant names, and note known hybridizations. Findings derived from recent experimental work and from numerical taxonomy are incorporated, and to assure accuracy, these data have been extensively reviewed and tested by cooperating taxonomic specialists. Volume 1 consists of a series of introductory essays by nearly two dozen noted botanical authorities. Among the topics covered are the transformation of North American plant life since the end of the Mesozoic era some 70 million years ago; the influence of geographic, climatic, and soil factors; the impact of human cultivation; great naturalists and their contributions to botany and floristics since the age of Columbus; and approaches to plant classification, with particular attention to the evolutionarily unique pteridophytes and gymnosperms that are covered in Volume 2.

FNA presents for the first time, in one published reference source, information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.

Vol.1 includes a list of flowering plant families (p.299-316) and a concordance of family names accepted by Cronquist, Takhtajan, and Thorne. Vol.2+ include distribution maps for each species.

This second volume of the magnificent compendium exhaustively describes and classifys the ferns, fern allies, and gymnosperms of North America. Covering over two dozen fern and half a dozen gymnosperm families, they survey fern species of both ecological and horticultural importance and review such gymnosperm taxa as the conifers (the dominant trees in many forests as well as important timber plants) and cycads, which display significant evolutionary features. In all, the volume assembles 509 species of ferns and fern allies and infraspecific taxa in 70 genera.

FNA presents for the first time, in one published reference source, information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.

To be published in 14 volumes over the next 12 years, The Flora of North America is a unique working resource of taxonomic information to the extraordinary diversity of plant life in the United States and Canada, an area blanketing the continent north of Mexico - including Greenland and the St. Pierre and Miquelon islands. More than 20,000 plant species have been systematically surveyed and classified for this single work which will be essential for anyone with an interest in the distribution, habitat, morphology, and survival of the wide-ranging plant life in the region. Flora of North America provides a single dependable information resource for protecting rare and endangered species, developing effective plant breeding programmes, conducting biological weed control, and launching and administering other forward-thinking plant management projects in the public and private sector alike. And with ongoing support from its permanent database, it's destined to remain an invaluable botanical reference into the next century and beyond. This introductory volume comprises a unique series of introductory essays that establish a firm foundation for the flora. Information is given on the physical and biological factors that have affected the evolution and distribution of plant life of North America since the end of the Mesozoic era some 70 million years ago. Flora of North America Database Flora of North America has a specially designed computer database that will store, retrieve, search, and update all the taxonomic information published in the flora's 14 original hardcover volumes.

This second volume of the magnificent compendium exhaustively describes and classifys the ferns, fern allies, and gymnosperms of North America. Covering over two dozen fern and half a dozen gymnosperm families, they survey fern species of both ecological and horticultural importance and review such gymnosperm taxa as the conifers (the dominant trees in many forests as well as important timber plants) and cycads, which display significant evolutionary features. In all, the volume assembles 509 species of ferns and fern allies and infraspecific taxa in 70 genera.