Grasses and Rushes of Maine: A Field Guide

Abstract

Like the Sedges of Maine, this is a photographic field guide to the remaining two graminoid families and packed with information in both text and photographic formats. The book and terminology are deliberately non-technical and accessible to the target audience, a diverse user group ranging from professional ecologists to farmers and gardeners. The book covers 28 species of Juncus, 6 of Luzula, 63 genera (including Zea!) and 181 species of the Poaceae, a significant portion of the New England flora (38 species of Juncus, 10 of Luzula, 103 genera and 315 species of Poaceae). The book is very similar in format and approach to the Sedges of Maine, and like it, is an excellent and thorough guide. The treatments of Juncus and Luzula include an initial master key to the genera, illustrated with photos; thumbnail photos of each species within the genus; a description of the genus; a matrix master key to the species, with photos of key characters; and a dichotomous key to the species, with one photo of each species. The keys use both morphological and ecological characters. For each species, there is a full page of text providing detailed descriptions, key features, distribution and habitat information, discussion of similar species, and list of ‘‘other names’’ that includes both vernacular names and synonyms; and a page of photos of the plant habit, inflorescence, key vegetative characters, flowers, capsules, and occasionally seeds. The photos of seeds – important characters for species identification – would be more useful at a higher magnification and sharper focus. The keys work well and allow the user to easily identify species of Juncus. Consistent with the authors’ intent to reach a broad group of users, the keys do not require the user to look at the prophylls, a character used in more technical keys and difficult for many botanists. The Poaceae occupy most of the book. The guide provides a tremendous amount of information, as well as photos, for each of the genera and species. The keys work very well. The treatment of the Poaceae starts with a matrix key that leads to 15 subkeys (dichotomous, illustrated with good photos) to the genera based on morphology rather than taxonomic groups. The matrix master key