From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 4, October 2019.
By Robert J. Soreng
Over the last 12 (to 26) years several field guides to grasses of western United States were published. See the list of cited field guides below with notes on each of them.
Of these guides, those for Alaska (Skinner et al., 2012), Nevada (Perryman & Skinner, 2007), Oregon & Washington (Roché et al., 2019), Texas (for the most part) (Shaw, 2012), and Wyoming (Skinner, 2010) are fully illustrated with photographs of habits and diagnostic parts, sometimes supplemented by line drawings. One additional guide listed below, for Wisconsin (Judziewicz et al., 2014), covers many of north central prairie grasses, and is very thorough and excellently done.
Four other western guides are amply illustrated with line drawings (with or without a few photos): California (Smith, 2014), Colorado (Shaw, 2008), New Mexico (Allred, 1993), and the Intermountain Region (Anderton et al., 2009). You may also find two recent illustrated contributions from Chihuahua (Herrera Arrieta & Peterson, 2018), and Coahuila (Valdés-Reyna, 2015) useful for our southern border regions. Excellent illustrations in these guides are mainly reproduced from the Flora of North America (FNA; Barkworth et al., vol. 25, 2003 & vol. 24, 2007), Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Hitchcock et al., 1969), or Manual of Grasses of the United States (Hitchcock {Chase ed.}, 1951). I also recommend the 2nd edition of the Flora of the Pacific Northwest (Hitchcock et al., 2018), which has been extensively updated for taxa and taxonomy, and still has great illustrated keys. Grass species are still difficult to key out, and having good photos to aid identifications makes a world of difference!
All treatments in all the grass guides listed, except the New Mexico volume, were completed after publication of FNA, and most follow the genera and species as presented there, and are comprehensive for species coverage in their states, except the California guide (Smith, 2014). Keeping up with changing classifications, genus circumscriptions, new species, and exotic introductions is a chore, and most of these accounts are inevitably a bit dated (I can’t even keep the Catalogue of New World Grasses up to date on Tropicos.org), but as accurate field guides to species identification go, these guides are great. Some taxonomic updates: Vulpia belongs in Festuca s.s., Schedonorus belongs in Lolium, Scribneria belongs in Deschampsia s.s., Crypsis and Spartina belong in Sporobolus, Pennisetum belongs in Cenchrus, etc. (for a 2017 classification of grasses see https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jse.12262). More recently, Achnatherum of North America mostly belongs in Eriocoma while a few others belong in Barkworthia, Pseudoeriocoma, Thorneochloa (https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.126.34096).
Three guides were sole authored, first authored or coauthored by Quentin Skinner (Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming) who taught Agrostology at University of Wyoming. These are fully illustrated by color photos with comprehensive species coverage. All these “Skinner” guides have excellent photos with field habit shots and close ups of diagnostic parts, descriptions, keys to genera and species, and detailed specimen dot maps on county base maps, or color base maps (Alaska). These guides set a high standard for photography for field guides to grasses. I highly recommend them.
The newest contribution is a Field Guide to the Grasses of Oregon and Washington, by Roché et al. (2019). After some 15 years in preparation it is finally published, and I am happy to see it. The book is well laid out with keys to genera, genera descriptions and keys to species, followed by species accounts. All genera and species are arranged alphabetically. Limited classification information is buried in keys to genera. Each species has a description, color photos of habits and parts, and a full dot range map for Oregon and Washington on nice topographically colored base maps. The vouchers for these dots are all on-line via the Oregon Flora Project and/or the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria websites, and were carefully vetted, although the Crater Lake and a few other dots on the map below belong to Poa cusickii subsp. purpurascens. The diagnostic characters for each species are photographed on a black background to highlight coloration, textures, prickles and hairs, and shapes. All the photos were carefully edited and are sharp. These are a delight to scan through. Scale bars are included for parts, along with labeled parts and pointers to diagnostic traits. Cindy Roché was one of the main illustrators of grasses for FNA vol. 24 & 25, which shows through in attention to key characteristics in the photos. Such high-quality photos help to capture the feel for each grass species and bring them to life. Photographing all species in the field took a lot of care and time, with many road and trail miles. Photographing grasses is not easy work, as anyone who’s tried it knows, as I have for over 40 years with variable success. I highly recommend this guide for learning and identifying grasses in the Pacific Northwest.
List of Cited Field Guides
Allred, K.W. 1993. A Field Guide to the Grasses of New Mexico. Department of Agricultural Communications, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. Notes: 1-259 pp. keys, and illustrations (genera and some species) line drawings mostly from Manual of Grasses of the United States, and county dot maps, comprehensive. No ISBN, Spiral bound.
Anderton, L.K. and M.E. Barkworth. 2009. Grasses of the Intermountain Region. Intermountain Herbarium, Logan, UT. Notes: xi + [1]--559 (and inside covers), fully illustrated with excellent line drawings by C.T. Roché et al. (from FNA vol. 24 & 25), all accounts extracted from FNA (reformatted with abbreviations added), with keys to genera and species, and descriptions, comprehensive, unfortunately the organization of genera is as chaotic (particularly so in tribe Poeae) as in FNA, and species are arranged in infrageneric groups, not very helpful for a field guide, the illustrations are all in the back in the same order. ISBN 978-0-87421-7773, Spiral bound.
Herrera Arrieta, Y. and P.M. Peterson. 2018. Grasses of Chihuahua, Mexico. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 107: i–ix, 1–380. Notes: specimens cited (no maps), keys to genera and species, comprehensive, many species illustrated by line drawings (mainly from FNA vol. 24 & 25, M.E. Barkworth et al., eds.), pdf open access (https://dx.doi.org/10.5479/si.1938-2812.107), paperback.
Hitchcock, C.L. and A.J. Cronquist. 2018. Flora of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd ed. Burke Museum Herbarium & University of Washington Press, Seattle. Notes: 2nd edition. D.E. Giblin, B.S. Legler, P.F. Zika, R.G. Olmstead (eds.). Illustrated originally by J.R. Janish, J.H. Rumley, with additions by C. Shin, N. Porcino. Taxonomy and illustrated keys updated, comprehensive. ISBN-13: 978-0-29574-288-5, hardcover. ISBN 10: 978-0-29574-288-7, paperback, and electronic Kindle versions.
Judziewicz, E.J., R. Freckmann, L. Clark and M. Black. 2014. Field Guide to Wisconsin Grasses. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. Notes: ix + [1]-346, county maps, lists of species by habitats, fully illustrated by line drawings and photos, illustrated key to genera and keys to species, comprehensive. ISBN 978-0-299-30134-7, paperback, and ISBN 978-0-299-30133-0, e-book.
Perryman, B.L. and Q.D. Skinner. 2007. A Field Guide to Nevada Grasses. Indigenous Rangeland Management Press, Lander, WY. Notes: 256 pp., fully illustrated with photos. ISBN 0-940936-99-2, paperback.
Roché, C.T., R.F. Brainerd, B.L. Wilson, N. Otting and R.C. Korfhage. 2019. Field Guide to the Grasses of Oregon and Washington. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis. Notes: ix[x] + 1-460, specimen dots on topographically colored maps, fully illustrated with photos, keys, comprehensive. ISBN 978-0-87071-959-2, paperback. 2.2 lb.
Shaw, R.B. 2008. Grasses of Colorado. University of Colorado, Boulder. Notes: xi + 1-650, fully illustrated with line drawings from Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, pt. 1 (C.L. Hitchcock et al., 1969), and FNA vol. 24 & 25, (M.E. Barkworth et al., eds.), county maps, keys, comprehensive. ISBN 987-0-87081-883-7, hardcover.
Shaw, R.B. 2012. Guide to Texas Grasses, Texas A&M University Press, College Station. Notes: xi, 1-1080, keys, mixture of line drawings (mostly from FNA) and photos (for most), county dot maps, habitat maps and discussions, genera and species alphabetical (tribes noted), comprehensive. ISBN 13: 978-1-60344-186-5, Softbound (flexibound), 6.5 lbs., and ISBN 978-1-60344-674-7, e-book version.
Skinner, Q.D. 2010. A Field Guide to Wyoming Grasses. Education Resources Publishing, Cumming, Georgia. Notes: xii + 1-596, full dot maps, fully illustrated with photos, keys, comprehensive, genera arranged by tribes, dated. ISBN 978-0-615-38762-8, paperback.
Skinner, Q.D., S. Wright, R. Henszey, J. Henszey and S.K. Wyman. 2012. A Field Guide to Alaska Grasses. Education Resources Publishing, Cumming, Georgia. Notes: xix + [1]-380 pp., distributed by Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources, Palmer, AK fully illustrated with photos, specimen dots on topographically colored map, keys, genera arranged by current tribes (easy for Alaska), comprehensive. ISBN 978-0-615-64886-6, paperback.
Smith, Jr., J.P. 2014. Field Guide to Grasses of California. University of California Press, Oakland. Notes: x + 1-438 pp., K. Simpson (illustrator for introduction), photos (of mixed quality) of selected genera and species, keys to genera and to selected species, and generic concepts variously outdated. ISBN 13: 978-0-520-27567-6, hardcover, ISBN 10: 978-0-520-27568-3, paperback and electronic Kindle version.
Valdés-Reyna, J. 2015. Gramineas de Coahuila. CONABIO, Talapan, Mexico. Notes: 1–556 pp., specimens dots on municipio maps, keys to genera and species, comprehensive, fully illustrated by line drawings (mainly from FNA vol. 24 & 25, M.E. Barkworth et al., eds.), ISBN 978-607-8328-16-1, paperback.
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