Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities Book

"This is the first photographic identification guide to have an extensive discussion of plant communities and to organize plants by plant community . . . of interest to anyone desiring to identify Florida flowering plants—individuals who enjoy the outdoors, amateur naturalists, teachers, students, and professional biologists."—Walter Judd, University of Florida

Walter Taylor's guide will help readers recognize and identify wildflowers in a different way, not principally by their color or family group, but by where they're most likely to be found growing—their natural habitat. This book is the first of its kind for Florida.

Taylor provides detailed descriptions and color photos of each community—pine flatwoods, sandhills, upland pine forest, scrub, temperate hardwood forest, coastal uplands, subtropical pine forest, tropical hardwood hammock, and ruderal sites—and of the wildflower species associated with each. For each flower, he provides the scientific and common names, a brief description, flowering time, habitats, geographical range, color photo, and miscellaneous comments. While most of the flowers are herbaceous, Taylor also includes characteristic woody types. He makes special mention of endangered or threatened species and species of special concern. The guide includes a number of limited-distributed species that have never been published in a book of this type.

With individual photos (taken in the field) of more than 450 wildflower species, the most accurate range information available, and organization by ecological community, Taylor's guide aids not only in wildflower identification, but also in appreciation of the Florida landscapes that support them. By linking flowers with their natural habitats, it highlights the need to protect these ecologically unique communities to ensure survival of the wildflowers themselves. In addition, it offers a new resource for gardeners interested in planting native species.

Walter Kingsley Taylor is professor of biology at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, and the author of The Guide to Florida Wildflowers. He has lived in Florida for thirty years.