Flowering Plants
Basswoods to Spurges
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
cloth, 0-8093-1025-2, $55.00
256 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, illus.
published April 1982
Botany
This is the fourth volume devoted to dicotyledons, or dicot plants. Dicots are the greatest group of flowering plants, exceeding the monocotyledons, or monocots. Dicots produce a pair of seed leaves during germination, while monocots produce only a single seed leaf.
Five volumes have been published on monocots, covering such plants as grasses, sedges, lilies, orchids, irises, aroids, and pondweeds. The dicots include such plant groups as roses, mustards, mints, nightshades, milkweeds, asters, and pinks. The three previously published volumes on dicots treated hollies to loasas, willows to mustards, and magnolias to pitcher plants.
Although there are many classification systems, Mohlenbrock has chosen to identify the flowering plants according to the classification system proposed by Robert Thorne in outline form in 1968. He has, however, departed from Thorne's system in a few instances, but he follows Thorne in using the standard suffix--aceae--for all families. Thus, the Cruciferae becomes the Brassicaceae, the Guttiferae becomes the Hypericaceae, the Leguminosae becomes the Fabaceae, the umbelliferae becomes the Apiaceae, the Labiatae becomes the Lamiaceae, the Compositae becomes the Asteraceae, and the Gramineae becomes the Poaceae.
This volume contains four orders and ten families of dicots. The orders included are Malvales, Urticales, Rhamnales, and Euphorbiales. Within the Malvales are the families Tiliaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Malvaceae. The families Ulmaceae, Moraceae, and Urticaceae comprise the Urticales. The Rhamnaceae and Elaeagnaceae make up the Rhamnales. Only the Thymelaeaceae and the Euphoribiaceae are included in the Euphorbiales.
The nomenclature for the species and lesser taxa used in this volume has been arrived at after lengthy study of recent floras and monographs. Synonyms, with complete author citation, that have applied to species in the northestern United States are given under each species. A description, while not necessarily intended to be complete, covers the more important features of the species.
The common name, or names, is the one used locally in Illinois. The habitat designation is not always the habitat throughout the range of the species, but only in Illinois. The overall range for each species is given from the northeastern to the northwestern extremities, south to the southwestern limit, then east to the southeastern limit.
The range has been compiled from various sources, including examination of herbarium material and some field studies. A general statement is given concerning the range of each species in Illinois. Dot maps showing county distribution for each taxon are provided. Each dot represents a voucher specimen deposited in some herbarium. There has been no attempt to locate each dot with reference to the actual locality within each county.
Each species is illustrated, showing the habitat as well as some of the distinguished features. These detailed illustrations were provided by Mark Mohlenbrock.
Robert H. Mohlenbrock taught botany at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for thirty-four years, earning the title of Distinguished Professor. After his retirement in 1990, he joined Biotic Consultants as a senior scientist teaching wetland identification classes in twenty-six states to date. Mohlenbrock has been named SIU Outstanding Scholar and has received the SIU Alumnus Teacher of the Year Award, the AMOCO Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Meritorious Teacher of the Year Award from the Association of Southeastern Biologists. Since 1984, he has been a monthly columnist for Natural History magazine. Among his fifty books and more than five hundred and sixty publications are Macmillan's Field Guide to the U.S. National Forests, and Where Have All the Wildflowers Gone?
