This book is a series of keys to identify all Florida vascular plants from ferns to sunflowers; from the temperate to the tropical. Although mainly for a more serious botanist, the keys seem to home in to the main non-technical characters for field identification. This brevity is perhaps a problem when plant material is limited. There are no illustrations except a map of Florida counties (and one plant picture below the title). A synopsis of the flora is given (covers 3,834 species of which 1,180 are introduced and 155 endemics). A glossary will assist the laymen and the forgetful with terminology. Good features:
1. Taxonomy/nomenclature appears to be open to the recent revisions that were unfortunately not accepted by more conservative authors such as Cronquist (e.g. Eupatorium is treated as several genera here).
2. Explicitly states whether the plant is native, endemic, or introduced, and where in Florida (no maps, but a complete atlas available online.
3. All in one very portable volume for reasonable price; pages sturdy with legible sized print.
4. The book includes endemic species (e.g. Boltonia apalachicolensis) which were new discoveries since Clewell (1985) wrote the guide to the panhandle region.
The main complaints that I have (beside not being in Florida to test it out) are:
1. Families arranged by Englar/Prantl system and not shown in page header, hindering search for families (although genera are arranged alphabetically).
2. Aloe vera is listed in Agavaceae but doesn't appear in the key to genera.
3. No descriptions (but will be in future work according to author) END
