Description
As family treatments are completed for the New Manual, these are being made available as downloadable PDFs. The New Manual is a multi-year project by the New York Botanical Garden to fully revise and update the classic Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, Second Edition, by Gleason and Cronquist (1991, NYBG Press), in order to enable identification of all plants growing spontaneously in a vast region comprising portions or entirety of 22 states and 5 Canadian provinces (see map here). These family treatments are indispensable to all those interested having the most up-to-date information for this region of North America's rich botanical resources, serving the vascular plant reference needs especially of students, conservationists, wildlife managers, educators, gardeners, and citizen scientists. For a full list of PDF sections available click here.
Reviews
"Finally, parts of the
New Manual are being published! A highlight is that the treatments are complete, including all the newly arrived and described species. I will no longer have to use numerous pieces of literature to identify some of the species that grow in our region. The keys are simple yet adequate. The species are laid out side by side with full descriptions, allowing for easy comparison between taxa, a must have when the keys fail. And as we all know, even the best of keys fail. The descriptions are concise yet elaborate enough to get a clear understanding of the species. Bonus additions to the
New Manual are etymologies of the scientific names and frequency and conservation information for each of the species. Clearly the parts of the
New Manual that are being released are a must have for all those interested in the flora of our region."
- David Werier, Recent Past-President, New York Flora Association "A brand new flora of vascular plants from The New York Botanical Garden is available as digital PDF downloads and will soon be printed as a complete hardbound version! The area covered includes Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and southern Quebec and Ontario. The New Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada is under preparation, representing a revised enlarged update of the 1991 classic Gleason & Cronquist Manual, with approximately 20% more species. This is good news for many different biologists. The botanical treatments will be particularly useful for American and Canadian botanists as well as other scientists, naturalists, ecologists, foresters, conservationists, and students in all fields of natural history, as well as public or private organizations involved in environmental and plant protection. In contrast to the 1991 Manual, plant families are treated by specialists of these groups. Because so much information has been added in recent years, this new edition is very welcome, and the editors and the numerous authors deserve praise."
- Jacques Cayouette, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Assistant Curator, Department of Agriculture Ottawa Herbarium
Author(s)
Even as a child, I was fascinated by plants, spending hours on my hands & knees in the yard, nose pressed to the clovers, sorrel, violet, grasses, dandelion, mosses, etc. As soon as I was old enough, I disappeared into the woods to explore a whole new world of plants: oaks, maples, hickories, mulberries, sedges, wild ginger, etc. Even though I could tell that they were different from each other, I didn't actually know what most of them were called, as I had never heard of botany, knew nothing of scientific names, and had only the barest grasp of common names, with no one to teach me. until I joined the scouts, that is, at which point I learned a few common names., like poison ivy and virginia creeper. Once I realized that some plants had names, I also realized that that must mean that all plants have names, if only I could find someone to teach them to me (ignorantly unaware of the existence of botanical field guides... Before I actually took my first botany course, I got a job in a herbarium, a museum of dried plant specimens. Imagine my euphoria when all the plants I had seen as a child were laying there in front of me as specimens with names on them!! . My desire to see and study new plants led me to botanize in more than 40 states from coast to coast. Ultimately, I was driven to eventually complete a master's degree and doctorate in botany (at the University of Florida), because I wanted to keep learning about plants. . This desire to keep learning about plants is what led me to St. Louis, home of the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the premier botanical research institutes in the world, where I am surrounded by botanists, other 'weirdos' also fascinated by plants. There is nothing I love more than seeing new plants, talking about plants, sharing my passion for plant identification with others. J. Richard Abbott's Author Page