unknown plants / wildflowers

[annie2]

Hi,

These photos were taken at Woodlands Farm Trust's hay meadow in July.

Am I correct that the yellow flower is a smooth hawk's-beard ?

I think that their is more than one species of plants or wild flowers in the other pictures and want to know if anyone can identify these for me please?






P.s. does any one know of a very good book for identifying plant and animal species because the one i have doesn't have everything i find in it!

[Beekeeper]

Not sure but could the blue one be a Hairbell?

BK

[Tiggrx]

The blue one is Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca)

The yellow is very likely to be Smooth Hawk's-beard - but hard to be sure from a picture

[Johnny Redgate]

I thought maybe there was some Bush Vetch in the first photo of the blue one but also plenty of Tufted Vetch.
Yellow one - maybe Smooth Hawk's-beard, Common Cat's-ear, Autumn Hawkbit. Need to see some leaves (I do anyway).
For a good wildflower book get The Wildflower Key by Francis Rose.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by Johnny Redgate

For a good wildflower book get The Wildflower Key by Francis Rose.

I advise strongly against Rose as a beginner book - it assumes a level
of botanic knowledge that I don't think you yet have - sorry to be
a bit rude !!!!




Wild Flower Books
=============
A Frequently asked question, hence a potted and previously
posted answer:

Very popular is:

"Rose"
“The Wild Flower Key: A Guide to Plant Identification in the Field”,
with and Without Flowers by Francis Rose
ISBN-13: 978-0723224198
Rose needs a moderate understanding of botany to cope with the keys.
I'm also not impressed with the colours.
Keys often need fruit and/or roots for identification, which are
not always around!

***I think it is awful for beginners.***

Blamey, Fitter & Fitter have _two books_, broadly similar,
one by Domino guides (?now tandem?) and other by Collins.
(Pictures are very similar as Blamey is the artist for both
and IMO better pictures than Rose - I have been told that
the earlier guide, Collins, has the better drawings as
her eyesight was going when she did the domino guide
[well into her eighties] - her first lot being
Copyrighted she had to re-do them - they both seem good to me!)


“Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland”
The domino guide has great little distribution maps which
can be VERY helpful, but has no keys (apart from within
families) and is only Britain if you know your families then
it is great.
With global warming there is a drift of wild flowers from the South, some feel that
just having GB is limiting.
This has grasses and sedge and the text is clearer than the Collins.
ISBN 0 7136 5944 0

“Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain &
Northern Europe”
The Collins guide is smaller, so more rucksack friendly,
and has a good simple guide to getting the right pages
by using flower shape, petal number, inflorescence shape
and colour.
So excellent in early stage of learning.
It is also remarkably rain tolerant !!
It covers UK and West Europe.
Some commonish species are not immediately clear as
found in the text of other species.
Someone told me (? on WAB) that the drawings in this
book are better than the domino guide as Blamey was getting old
when she had to draw the domino guide.
Both seem fine to me.
5Rev Ed edition (18 April 1996)
ISBN-13: 978-0002200622

***I think this is the easiest book until one is confident
of recognizing the families to which species belong***


Really a photographic record of FANTASTIC
quality there is Roger Phillips'
"Wild Flowers of Britain"
ISBN 0 330 25183 x
Sometimes photos seem so much better than drawings
and sometimes vice versa.
it is difficult to show all identifying features with one or two
photos. Often basal leaves, fruit, bracts, sepals, hairs etc.
all need to be seen.


“The illustrated Flora of Brit and N Europe”
Blamey and Grey-Wilson, has been out of print for some
time I think. Another Domino Book
ISBN0 340 40170 2

My copy came from the States via Abebooks after 12 months
of having a request in, and cost MORE than the original, even
without postage ;-(
Personally I don't think it adds a lot to the Domino guide
mentioned before.


Complete British Wild Flowers (Collins Complete Photo Guides) by Paul Sterry
was published c 2007
I have not looked at it so can not comment.
ISBN-13: 978-0007204694

The Vegetative Key to the British Flora
By Poland and Clements
ISBN-13: 0956014402
Published 2009 – deals with flowers without their flowers.
Seems great, but it is a flora with keys with doublets etc, and not
For beginners, though it is easier to use than Stace.

Richard Mabey's "Flora Britannica" is neither a flora or a
Field guide book - though it is an excellent read.
ISBN-13: 978-1856193771


New Flora of the British Isles
by Stace and Thomson is the "Bible", but it is
words and not pictures and to avoided unless a botanist ;-)
ISBN-13: 978-0521589352

Field Flora of the British Isles
By Stace – a cut down version of the full flora above
Same comments apply
ISBN-10: 0521653150
ISBN-13: 978-0521653152


Excursion Flora of the British Isles
Clapham Tutin and Warburg is also words and no use
to a starter
ISBN-13: 978-0521232906

I bought (2007) two or three extras – NOT beginners
books

"A new key to wild flowers"
by Hayward and Hickey, from the Field Studies Council.
ISBN 1 85153 285 4
buy direct from the FSC (google)
(about 16 smackers)

Initial impression is great, because the key has simple line
drawings and seems easy to follow for non specialist
(it grew out of teaching amateurs).
It is NOT a picture matching book with text though.
In fact is B&W only, but a great addition.

“A Guide to Some Difficult Plants”
The Wild Flower Society illustrated articles, one of
the authors being WAB’s own Alan Silverside.
no ISBN number, got mine second hand from Abebooks
On the web.(it looks new!)

“Plant Crib”
By TCG Rich & AC Jermy
Botanical Soc of Brit Isles (BSBI)
ISBN 0 901158 28 3

This is highly specialized and eals only with difficult plant groups that
Have had some recent science applied to them.

Trees
Finally, none of the above are very good for trees, and
The most used book for trees is “Mitchell’s”
“A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern ~Europe”
By Alan Mitchell, Collins,
ISBN-10: 0002120356
1974 – I don’t think there has been another edition.

Collins Tree Guide
ISBN-10: 0007207719
ISBN-13: 978-0007207718
Owen Johnson
I haven’t used this but it looks good – published c 2008

Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species
Paul Sterry
ISBN-10: 0007236859
ISBN-13: 978-0007236855
I have not seen this, but Paul Sterry takes fantastic photos

[Johnny Redgate]

[quote=Hobjob;534400]I advise strongly against Rose as a beginner book - it assumes a level
of botanic knowledge that I don't think you yet have - sorry to be
a bit rude !!!!



Well Ok. We all have our preferences. It was my first wildflower ID book and still my primary field guide. Its got a glossary and if you want to ID wildflowers its as well to pick up some botanical knowledge. Sticking to my opinion .

[ceterach]

Hi All

I think Hobjob and Johnny Redgates posts say it all. In any subject, choice of reference books has a strong subjective element. I know I often do judge a book if not by its cover by but its "feel"!!!! I hate photographic plant guides for identification but then I love dichotomous keys (they really make you look and learn).

I would suggest read all the advice and then go to a good book shop and chose what you think you can live with.

CTW rules!!!

All the best

[Monkey Orchid]

I've got copies of Fitter/Fitter/Blamey's Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain & Northern Europe and Rose's The Wild Flower Key, and I find they complement each other. I bought Fitter first and it's definitely a good beginner's book; but once I started using Rose I found I was able to identify a lot more species confidently, thanks to the more detailed info in that field guide. If you are willing to get familiar with the botanical terms it uses (using its glossary to help you), that's a good field guide IMO.

Fitter - Pros: simple to use for beginners, artwork that really captures the 'look' of the plants. Cons: identification keys are very basic and only cover plants in flower (i.e. not vegetative keys).

Rose - Pros: illustrated glossary of botanical terms, identification keys for flowers and vegetative plants, illustrations of close-up details such as seeds and stems, useful printed ruler on back cover which enables you to take measurements in the field. Cons: artwork is sometimes less 'realistic' than in Fitter, technical botanical terms can be off-putting to a complete beginner.

As for photographic field guides, I wouldn't bother. I've got the Roger Phillips book at home and it's a nice reference book, but I don't really use it for identification. I find photos lacking in detail and there is often a bad compromise between trying to show the whole plant but neglecting to include close-ups of flowers, leaves and other distinguishing features. I often look at photos of wild plants on the Internet (e.g. here in the WAB Gallery or on Google Images) to confirm ID, after I've used Fitter or Rose to get me on the right track.

As others have suggested here, I reckon your best bet is to have a look at these books (and others from the list of ideas which people have put forward), and go with what you feel comfortable with right now.

As this is the Wildflowers, Plants and Trees section of the forum, you may be better off posting a separate message about field guides for animals in one of the other sections - maybe in the General Wildlife section? There are dozens of good field guides out there, but it really depends what animals you are interested in - e.g. mammals, reptiles and amphibians, birds, insects, pond life..?

One option could be to invest in some Field Studies Council identification charts: they range from £2.75 to £3.50 each and cover all kinds of British wildlife, including birds, dragonflies and damselflies, grasshoppers and crickets, reptiles and amphibians, bats, owls and owl pellets, mammal tracks and signs, minibeasts, pond life, butterflies, caterpillars, spiders, moths, bees, fossils and even clouds! Their website is at: FSC Publications - Laminated foldout charts for identification if you want to take a look.

[annie2]

Hi,

Thank you all for your ident's and book suggestions. All book reviews were interseting and I will follow all leads up and find the book right for me.