Botany advice please - ID guides

Thanks, that made me chuckle!
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But it’s true, this year, recording flowering plants for the first time, I’ve had to become more serious about botany and lockdown gave me the ideal opportunity to i) study using proper botanical books and ii) look much more closely at all flora, including insignificant pavement weeds and all those yellow composites I’d wilfully ignored before.

Just wanted to express my appreciation for these really helpful posts about plant ID books. In common, I imagine, with many others, I have come to plants as a result of the combination of lockdown and local walks. Following your very helpful suggestions (as well as suggestions made by those who have commented on some of my observations) I decided to supplement my 1974 Fitter, Fitter and Blamey and invest in books on grasses by Hubbard and Rose, Avery’s ‘Plants and Habitats’, Stace 4 and the 2nd edition of Poland, plus Streeter’s ‘Wild Flower Guide’ (2nd edition), Harrap’s ‘Wild Flowers’ photo guide and Sanford’s ‘A Flora of Suffolk’ (which has some excellent introductory material on soils, landscape history, climate and habitats). [I suspect that the NHBS is doing quite well in the lockdown].

I’m still very much taking first tentative steps, as I started at a very low level of botanical knowledge, but am finding it really fascinating discovering ‘new’ plants almost every day. Of course, simply having the ‘right’ books guarantees nothing (exchanging my Clavinova for a Steinway wouldn’t make me a better pianist!), but at least it’s a start and hopefully an incentive.

I’ve been enjoying the “Dr M Goes Wild” website [http://drmgoeswild.com/] and am planning to work through his advice on using “The Book of Stace” (which does look rather overwhelming for a beginner - but, being retired, I have the time to give it a go).

Thanks too to all who have patiently taken the time and trouble to correct my faltering attempts at identifying my observations. I was initially a little dubious about iSpot - hoping it wasn’t just a repository for natural history snaps - so have been really impressed by the helpfulness and enthusiasm of so many contributors.

Thanks again,

Steve [Viktring]

I think my experience is similar to yours - I started the year as a naturalist with a fair knowledge of the native flora of (in my case) the South-East but with some serious gaps in knowledge - crucifers and composites, naturally, but also willowherbs and, of course, all the grasses, reeds, sedges and pondweeds. But you soon realise that you can get to the grips with most families if you pay attention, apply yourself and start to become familiar with the diagnostic features. I think most people would come to botany thinking the flower is the key - often, it’s not. That in itself is a major lesson. Anyway, I think it’s a very rewarding journey, and I feel happy at the progress made even over the course of a single season, much of which was spent in lockdown. And the great thing about iSpot is that it is a learning tool - you learn from others identifying the plants in your observations (there’s no shame in error!), but you also see the plants of others being identified, and it all helps.
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I don’t regret buying any of the books (mentioned in previous comments in this thread), they’ve all been useful in their different ways. The “Vegetative Key” is, I think, especially handy, as it gets you thinking about and looking at plants in a different way, and draws you away from an over-reliance on the flowers.
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If any groups particularly appeal to you, then I’ld recommend the BSBI Handbooks. They are very accessible and arguably easier to use than Stace. The umbellifer and crucifer ones are great.

Somerfield Books is selling over 230 books from the Geoffrey Wilmore collection. https://www.summerfieldbooks.com/shop/second-hand/

There are many county floras which may be of interest.

Ooh, thank you, JoC - I’ve just bought an out-of-print county flora which I’ve been after for ages.

Yes, excellent, thanks JoC. And it is searchable - fungi, seaweeds, lichens, beetles etc…
Check Abebooks before you buy though https://www.abebooks.co.uk/?cm_sp=TopNav-

Viktring mentioned Harrap’s Wild Flowers. Generally, I’m not overly keen on photographic field guides but I bought this at the start of the year and am delighted with it. It is not comprehensive but it covers most species of flowering plant most botanists would expect to find at least in lowland England, which is what I wanted it for. (Warning: no grasses, rushes, sedges).
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Even better, it’s available as an ebook, which my partner has downloaded to her smartphone and which has enabled us to be confident of some identifications in the field which previously would have left me poring over my badly-taken photos late into the evening only to find that I had unaccountably overlooked to photograph the all-important stipules.
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Definitely recommended for beginner to immediate and I’ld say beyond.

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Valuable thanks
I can be previewed here Google Books
Abe Books has lots, suggesting a reprint or new edition is available
The E dition
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harraps-Wild-Flowers-Simon-Harrap-ebook/dp/B0868SWF4P

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Stella Ross-Craig.
I’m posting this here as this forum already has Ross-Craig references.
It is to support this post on which Lavaterguy has comprehensively commented.

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