Flowering Plants
Willows to Mustards
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
cloth, 0-8093-0922-X, $47.00
288 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, illus.
published January 1980
Botany
All flowering plants may be divided into two great groups, the monocotyledons, or monocots, and the dicotyledons, or dicots. Monocots are plants that produce a single leaf, called a seed leaf, when the seeds first germinate. Dicots, on the other hand, are plants that give rise to a pair of seed leaves. Although monocots are fewer in number than dicots, they include many important groups of plants. Grasses, sedges, lilies, orchids, irises, aroids, and pondweeds are examples of monocots. The members of this group have been described in five precious volumes in The Illustrated Flora of Illinois. Dicots, which are more numerous in Illinois, include well-known plants such as roses, peas, mustards, mints, nightshades, milkweeds, and asters. one volume treating dicots has been published previously in this series--Flowering Plants: Hollies to Loasas.
In this present volume, Robert H. Mohlenbrock includes three orders of vascular plants, encompassing five families. Because such a small number of families of dicots is found in this work, no overall key to the dicot families of Illinois is included. For keys to all families of vascular plants in Illinois, Mohlenbrock's companion volume, Guide to Vascular Flora of Illinois, is recommended. The orders covered in this present volume are the Salicales, Tamaricales, and Capparidales. The Salicales and Tamaricales each are made up of a single family, the Salicaceae and Tamaricaceae, respectively. Three families comprose the Capparidales. Theses are the Capparidaceae, Resedaceae, and Brassicaceae. In all, 44 genera and 117 species are treated, and each species is illustrated in detail with some of the best drawings ever to appear in any flora.
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, which have applied to species in Illinois, are given under each species. Descriptions, while not necessarily intended to be complete, cover the more important features of each species. As in previous volumes in this series, 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 for it in Illinois. Ranges have been compiled from various sources, including examination of herbarium a material and field studies. Dot maps showing county distribution for each taxon are provided.
Volumes in The Illustrated Flora of Illinois follow a classification proposed in outline form by Robert Thorne in 1968. Except for departures in a few instances, these concepts have been generally accepted in this work. These volumes follow Thorne in using the standard suffix -aceae for all families. Thus here the mustard family, traditionally known as the Cruciferae, becomes the Brassicaceae.
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?
