Colorado has a rich diversity of ecosystems and vegetation communities, ranging from 3,500 ft to over 14,000 ft in elevation, and ultimately supports over 3,200 vascular plant species. This book is a comprehensive guide to the vascular plants in Colorado, and contains descriptions, distribution maps, habitat information, flowering times, and elevation ranges for all species. Color photographs for nearly 1/3 of the species are also included. The aim of this guide is to enable students, researchers, amateur and professional botanists, or anyone interested in the flora of Colorado to successfully identify plants with confidence and satisfaction.
I began writing the Flora of Colorado about 12 years ago, as I was attempting to verify the specimens in the CSU Herbarium. I found that for many families or genera (such as Cirsium or Physaria), misidentifications were quite common. I began asking myself “why?” and “how can misidentifications be eliminated in the future?” I was also utilizing several keys in the process but found that the keys I was working with were oftentimes insufficient, outdated, or difficult to use. Thus, I began writing my own keys based on what I considered to be more usable, major distinguishing morphological characteristics. In particular, I wanted to make keys that students or amateur botanists could use to identify plants with greater ease and efficiency. These keys gradually developed into what is now the Flora of Colorado. In addition, supplying the users of the keys with pictures of the major recognition characteristics I felt would enable them to easily see the more difficult characteristics used to delimit species. It is my hope that users of this book will be able to key out plants with confidence and ease (well, with as much ease as possible at least!) and enjoy botany!
I began writing the Flora of Colorado about 12 years ago, as I was attempting to verify the specimens in the CSU Herbarium. I found that for many families or genera (such as Cirsium or Physaria), misidentifications were quite common. I began asking myself “why?” and “how can misidentifications be eliminated in the future?” I was also utilizing several keys in the process but found that the keys I was working with were oftentimes insufficient, outdated, or difficult to use. Thus, I began writing my own keys based on what I considered to be more usable, major distinguishing morphological characteristics. In particular, I wanted to make keys that students or amateur botanists could use to identify plants with greater ease and efficiency. These keys gradually developed into what is now the Flora of Colorado. In addition, supplying the users of the keys with pictures of the major recognition characteristics I felt would enable them to easily see the more difficult characteristics used to delimit species. It is my hope that users of this book will be able to key out plants with confidence and ease (well, with as much ease as possible at least!) and enjoy botany!
