A must buy for any botanist
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This is the standard text for any botanist whether amateur or professional. I reach for it every day and every day I learn something new. I would recommend that you also buy Stace's Field Flora of the British Isles which is a condensed form (subspecies?) of this book so is much smaller and easier to carry in the field. But don't buy just the Field Flora as the text and hence the information contained therein is also condensed. A word of warning: The New Flora is a technical book written by an acomplished professional taxonomist/botanist for professionals but don't let this deter any new comers to botany it is still good to have along with the more basic guides such as the Collins Guide to the Wildflowers of Britain and Ireland by Fitter et al. As you begin to identify plants using the basic guides you can also refer to Stace and you will eventually get used to the technical language of Stace. I use Stace as my primary text for identifying plants but still refer to the basic texts for pictures just to be absolutley certain. All in all buy it along with the Field Flora but have at least one of the basic texts also.
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Very useful but definately not for the beginner
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Stace's Flora lists virtually all the species likely to be found growing wild (including established introductions) within the British Isles but it is rather too large and heavy to be used in the field-his Field Flora is much more suitable for that purpose. It is very technical and, although the keys work, a fair amount of experience is required before they are of much use. I find his omission of any indication of flowering times particularly annoying. I realise these vary depending upon where the plant is growing, but most flora's give at least a rough indication and it certainly aids identification. There are a number of very useful illustration showing the differences between the more critical genera (e.g.Alchemilla) and these are very useful. An essential book for the serious (amateur or professional) botanist but I still find the earlier Flora's (by CTW and CTM) easier to use even though the nomenclature is a bit outdated, they also give a lot of additional useful information (e.g.pollinating agents) which Stace generally omits.
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