Hi all! Hope this post is okay. I'm looking for an extensive guide to British wild plants. I have a general wildlife book but it doesn't have much of what I see. With everything starting to sprout and grow I'd love to learn more about our native plants.
Any recommendations?
Edit: there's lots of wildflower books but I'd like something that has grasses, lichen, ferns and everything really.
Posted Apr 17, 2020, 6:28 PM UTC · edited
The Wildflower Key by Francis Rose is core in opinion. Definitely get yourself a copy.
I really like another old one Wildflowers of Britain by Roger Phillips it's photographs and beautifully presented.
Oh cool! I have his mushroom book which is fantastic!
There's so many species that I don't think you'd find any decent guides that would cover everything. Field Studies Council do a range of laminated fold out guides of different types of plants and habitats which you could choose from.
Thanks I'll have a gander.
Here's a comparison of some of the main books: http://drmgoeswild.com/dr-ms-extreme-botanical-christmas-stocking-fillers/
I have the Collins wildflower guide and it's excellent, it has grasses and ferns too but lichens are a bit specialist so you'd probably need a separate book for them.
https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/ is a great resource as well.
I'm pretty sure there isn't one book that fits all of them; there's a Roger Phillips guide to Grasses, Ferns, Mosses and Lichens, which is out of print but not too hard to find, plus a bunch of wildflower guides. It's not amazingly comprehensive, but not bad, if I remember right, me Dad has a copy, I don't.
There's actually a real shortage of up-to-date guides on grasses especially, in my opinion, if anyone gets bored enough in the upcoming weeks...
We could do it in the comments, grass that's one
Trees, the branchy kind and the leafy ones that another 2
My mum told me we have around 45% of bluebells in the UK so they are protected. I don’t know how true that is but they are pretty in a garden.
I thoroughly recommend the Collins hand guide - Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. The older version. I think you have to buy it second hand now. But it’s the best.
Thanks! What year is the edition and what's the difference? I've found a 2001 and a 1985 edition.
Erm. Good question. I have the older 1985 edition. Someone told me the older one was better but I can’t recall why now! It’s possible I miss -remembered and there isn’t a difference. Anyway, it’s great, and has way more than just standard wild flowers. The identification guide at the front is super helpful.