Flowering Plants: Flowering Rush to Rushes is an updated flora by Mohlenbrock that includes many of the monocot families from Illinois. The flora includes information on 16 families including: Butomaceae, Alismaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Juncaginaceae, Potamogetonaceae, Ruppiaceae, Zannichelliaceae, Najadaceae, Araceae, Lemnaceae, Sparganiaceae, Typhaceae, Xyridaceae, Commelinaceae, Pontederiaceae, and Juncaceae. Flowering Plants: Flowering Rush to Rushes is a second edition, and is part of a six flora series entitled The Illustrated Flora of Illinois. A second part of the series will be a flora containing the other half of the monocot families.
The author starts out by showing the reader how to use the keys; this allows the reader to determine the family of the plant they are interested in. The keys used for this flora are very straightforward. This flora also includes a glossary, so this book will be usable for novices as well as those with more plant identification experience. The author has provided general descriptions of the order as well as descriptions for all families included under that order (for Illinois). These descriptions include general morphological traits and other notable traits for order, family and genera within the family. Dichotomous keys follow each family description and allow readers to determine genus followed by species within each genus.
Each species contained in the flora includes information on that species' morphological traits, common name, habitat, range, some known collection data and other helpful information. There are 125 black and white line illustrations of various species (108 from the first edition and 17 new illustrations for this edition). These images provide readers with details of the plant habit, leaves, inflorescence and/or fruit. Each species description also presents a distribution map by county of that species within Illinois.
This flora concludes with an explanation of why certain species were excluded from this second addition, and also contains an appendix that discusses revisions from the previous edition (1970). Mohlenbrock has provided readers with a succinct summary of the taxa included in this volume, a glossary, references and an index by plant names, both common and scientific.
Flowering Plants: Flowering Rush to Rushes by Mohlenbrock is a usable flora that would make a nice addition to the library of any person interested in the identification of Illinois area plants (as well as anyone working with aquatic plants). This flora is a second edition and has been updated over the earlier versions by the addition of new species as well as corrected plant name information. The black and white drawings provided in the text are helpful in showing the major identification traits of the species. The keys are straightforward and the flora does contain a glossary for any unfamiliar terms. The description for each species is thorough and identification hints help the reader conclude that he/she has determined the correct species. Flowering Plants: Flowering Rush to Rushes is another well-written and user-friendly flora from Robert Mohlenbrock.
