Identifying grasses

[smartie]

Can anyone recommend a book that would be a good beginner's guide to identifying grasses? Now we've stopped cutting the lawn much I find I have many in my garden that I can't identify.

[almostnormal]

there are a couple that are good. the collins field guide is my bible, but i also use the big roger phillips guide to grasses ferns mosses and lichens, which is also very good, particulalry if you are just starting to identify them!

[AlanS]

Originally Posted by almostnormal

there are a couple that are good. the collins field guide is my bible, but i also use the big roger phillips guide to grasses ferns mosses and lichens, which is also very good, particulalry if you are just starting to identify them!

I agree. There are several books of varing technicality available, but as one who sometimes has students trying to identify grasses, I can vouch for their greater success rate with Roger Phillips's book. Very good, clear photographs and simple descriptions.

Alan Silverside

[almostnormal]

when i was learning my lecturer told me that photographs were not an appropriate way to id grasses. so i used to use the roger phillips one and then pretend i'd keyed it out with the collins guide! i don't think he ever caught on. now that i've been doing it a while the collins one is better!

[smartie]

Hmm. The trouble with the Roger Phillips one is that it seems to be out of print and used ones are selling on Amazon for anything between £35 for a tatty ex-library copy to £165 for a good one I think I may have to try to cope with the Collins.

[almostnormal]

its not that bad though...don't panic . if i can get my head around it i'm sure you'll be able to! there's a copy of roger phillips on ebay at the moment, with 4 days to go sitting at £6 but its already got bids on it. i found my copy at a national trust place, in the book bit a few years ago, so i guess it was going out of print then. so annoying when the best books go out of print!

[smartie]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of ebay. Not used it before but this could be the moment.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by smartie

Hmm. The trouble with the Roger Phillips one is that it seems to be out of print and used ones are selling on Amazon for anything between £35 for a tatty ex-library copy to £165 for a good one I think I may have to try to cope with the Collins.

wow really? I have this book bought it for aboout £15 a couple of years ago aoff amazon probably (its where I get most of my books) maybe I should put it up for sale!!

[AlanS]

Originally Posted by smartie

Hmm. The trouble with the Roger Phillips one is that it seems to be out of print and used ones are selling on Amazon for anything between £35 for a tatty ex-library copy to £165 for a good one I think I may have to try to cope with the Collins.

Ye gods! So the 12 (I hope) nearly pristine copies sitting on a certain open access laboratory shelf for unsupervised student consultation might need to be moved?
(Or possibly already have been ....)

Alan

[Marvin Africa]

I would recommend Collins Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe. It is a pocket guide (so good size for use in the field) and is illustrated (I prefer illustrations to photographs). Another excellent book for grasses is Hubbard (although probably not for the beginner) The book is quite out of date these days with regard to scientific names but for £5.00 It is worth getting a copy if you are interested in grasses. The FSC publish laminated field guides for identifying grasses.