Books for Learning Plants

These books are selected from my library. Although I live in the tropics now and that slant is apparent in this list, do not ignore all the tropical books just because you live someplace else. When I wanted to learn plant identification here in Panama, the book most helpful in getting me started was one written by a naturalist in Montana!

General Books on Plants

Flowering Earth, by Donald Culross Peattie

I read this book many years ago. I loved Peattie’s language and appreciation of the natural world but somehow lost my only copy in one of the many moves I made in my youth. I was delighted to find the book has been reprinted. His language may seem a little poetic to modern ears, but the appreciation of the natural world - the wonder and awe he had for it - comes through with as much muscle as ever

A Natural History of North American Trees, by Donald Culross Peattie

I was a little hesitant about buying this book because now that I live in the tropics, I was not sure I’d relate to North American Trees. Was I wrong! The descriptions are fascinating. I feel like I could easily distinguish every pine species he writes about, just through his words.

The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter, by Colin Tudge

The title and subtitle would say it all. Tudge is a modern day Peattie, in my eyes.

In Praise of Plants, by Francis Hallé

Throughout this book Hallé chides us humans for our animal-bias. Even biologists try to make plant biology analogous to animal biology, and Hall? shows us, among other things, the many ways in which these analogies are not only false but ludicrous. Further, he demonstrates countless ways in which plants, over evolutionary time, have manipulated animals to help spread plant genes. I love this book. Hallé has a sense of humor along with his vast knowledge of plant biology, which he makes easily accessible to all the rest of us.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan

Pollan presents at the beginning of this book the idea that plants may manipulate humans to aid plant gene dispersal. Unlike Hallé, to whom he does not refer, Pollan does not present us with satisfying arguments to support that idea. But Hallé is a biologist and Pollan is a gardener, and in the end Pollan’s stories are about humans and what humans do to plants, not the other way around. Nevertheless, the book is a good read, and the chapter on the potato and genetic engineering is worth the price of the book.

Reference Books

How Plants Get Their Names, by L.H. Bailey

A classic. Bailey loves words and conveys beautifully the interest anyone may have in naming plants. Includes wonderful appendices of genus and species names - with pronunciation marks for both genus and species and with translations for the species names.

The Plant-Book. A portable dictionary of the vascular plants. 2nd Ed., by D. J. Mabberley

A botanist I know said that if she had to restrict herself to one plant book, this
would be it. You’ll want to become somewhat familiar with botanical terminology,
though, before it’s of much use.

Plant Identification Books - General

Botany in a Day: Thomas J. Elpel’s Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families, 4th Ed. by Thomas J. Elpel. HOPS Press. Pony, Montana. 221 pp. (an earlier edition is here: Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification)

Designed for beginners in North America, but the principles apply to all plant identification, and many of the families are found here in Panama. Elpel’s book was a great help in getting me started, he knows how to introduce botanical terminology in plain English, and he has great mnemonics for remembering key characteristics of families.

How To Identify Plants, by H. D. Harrington.

A classic introduction to plant identification - excellent for students of botany - far more formal than Elpel’s approach (above). Indeed, if you read Elpel first, you might think learning plants is going to be more of a snap than it is, and if you read Harrington first, you might think learning plants is going to be much more difficult than it is. I have found the learning process to be in between these two in difficulty.

Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary, by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris.