Following on from its successful launch in 2009, Collins Wild Flower Guide – the ultimate reference book for wild flower enthusiasts – now enters its second edition. Following on from the successful first edition of the Collins Flower Guide, this second edition has been renamed to reflect the fact that it covers wild and not cultivated plants. In some cases, such as the splitting up of the Scrophulariaceae and the Liliaceae into a number of separate families, this has resulted in some unfamiliar changes although in many cases they had already been predicted by traditional taxonomy. This is quite a thick heavy book so we usually leave this one at home for reference use rather than for field use. And thats just the illustrations - each section has a 'proper' key to wade through for those with detailed botanical knowledge.

I strongly recommend this book to any student studying botany and the like , and to anyone interested in wild flowers , grasses , ferns and so on . I received this book last week and have tried it out in the field, mainly on ferns and trees and some difficult genera. The illustrations are very detailed highlighting the salient points as are the grasses, sedges and rushes. Add to this the tree, rushes, sedges and fern sections and this really is the most complete guide published yet - and the easiest to use - if not to carry! David Streeter is Reader in Ecology in the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sussex and a member of the Editorial Board of the prestigious Collins New Naturalist series.

There are no new illustrations as such, but substantial text corrections and updates in addition to the taxonomic changes. There have been some more substantial revisions to some of the keys, presumably improvements resulting from a review or from feedback that the authors have received. It covers Britain and Ireland and contains a combination of illustrations and identification keys: those interested in wild plants may have previously seen this combination in the Francis Rose guide. The only slight fault, that may cause some readers a little consternation, is that the identification key is divided up by genus and spread throughout the book. Similar species have their leaves shown clearly behind the flower and this has allowed me to name a species that has been puzzling me for a couple of years!

I love the 'little circles' around pertinent points where there are close similarities - draws the eye immediately to the bits you need to compare. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

The introduction does explain everything you need to know, and it is essential for the laymen to read it; be patient and when in doubt, use either alternate bookYouTube as a supplemental tutor for identification. I have never seen such a comprehensive coverage of the natural fauna , to be found around the British Isles .

This is an updated version of a book which was first published in 2009 as the 'Collins Flower Guide', which has been renamed presumably to make it clear that it is a guide to wild flowers rather than those grown in gardens! The APG system has now been incorporated into the most recent edition of Stace’s standard British flora and has been followed in this new edition of the Guide. Does not have a particularly user friendly key so not the best book for quickly finding the identify of a flower unless you have rough idea to start with. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook).Excellent book, beautifully illustrated although pictures (and book itself) are a little small, but if this were a table-sized book it would be huge, so just about right. Collins Flower Guide is an indispensable guide for all those with an interest in the countryside, whether amateur or expert.