Guide to the vascular plants of Florida

Castanea, Dec 2004 by Mellichamp, T Lawrence

Wunderlin, Richard P. and Bruce F. Hansen. 2003. Guide to the vascular plants of Florida. Second Edition. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 787 pages. $39.95. ISBN 0-8130-2632-6

I went back and reread my review five years ago of the first edition of this handy Guide where I gave overwhelmingly positive remarks. I think you will find the new second edition an improvement. The Families are arranged alphabetically; 100 additional species have been added and nomenclature has been updated. It's too bad more state and regional floras cannot be updated and improved in this manner.

The new edition still has simple keys to families, genera, and species. In fact, they are a model of simplicity. However, if you have a flower only, and the key uses a fruit character, you are lost. There is a map of Florida counties and a handy index to family page numbers on the inside covers. The glossary is good and the indexes impeccable, often listed entries in several variations.

This well-presented volume should be interesting to botanists, ecologists and natural heritage works far and wide because it includes so many plants, some of which are widely known as cultivated plants. In fact, the most often used phrases in the book are "Escaped from cultivation" and "Native to ... ." The most useful aspect for modern users-where natural area reports and species lists must be provided for a variety of readers-is still the fact that every species has a common name. I propose that we adopt them when possible, though some, as always, will be different from some of the traditional common names. Two that caught my eye were "FOOLPROOFPLANT" (a bromeliad) and, the longest, "GULF COAST REDFLOWER PITCHERPLANT."

Species are listed after the keys with no descriptions and no illustrations, just county distribution, habitat, frequency, flowering time, and very useful synonyms. They are indicated as to endemic or non-native. By the way, there are 4,145 taxa in 1,364 genera and 243 families. There are 2,827 natives, 1,318 non-natives, and 228 endemics. While the University Press flier that came with the book professes "[it shows us] what we stand to lose to exotic species invasion...]," I found no indication anywhere of which species are considered invasive.

There have been some taxonomic decisions made (summarized on page 2 of the Introduction): for example, the Asclepiadaceae are included in the Apocynaceae, but Araliaceae are still separate from Apiaceae. Liliaceae and others are split into modern families and genera-I noticed the Veronicaceae-but the Ericaceae and Fabaceae are treated in their traditional broad senses. This makes the Guide an excellent teaching tool in taxonomy classes where students can easily compare a modern treatment with some of the older floras.

As one who has traveled in Florida and tried to key out species from there; and one who loves floras, herbaria, and the people who work with them to try and make sense out of the inexplicable variation in nature, I have only great praise for the work of Wunderlin and Hansen.

I think you will benefit in many ways from owning this useful and modestly priced book.-T. LAWRENCE MELLICHAMP, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAHOLINA AT CHARLOTTE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28223.

T. LAWRENCE MELLICHAMP, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28223.