To be published in 14 volumes over the next 12 years, this long-awaited synoptic compendium represents the first and only comprehensive taxonomic guide to the extraordinary diversity of plant life blanketing our continent north of Mexico--including Greenland and the St. Pierre and Miquelon islands. The collaborative effort of more than 30 major U.S. and Canadian botanical institutions, it revises and synthesizes literally thousands of floristic monographs and regional floras published over the last three centuries. But more than that, it distills the original herbarium, laboratory, and field...

In Volume 2, over 50 contributors exhaustively describe and classify the ferns, fern allies, and gymnosperms of North America. Covering over two dozen fern and half a dozen gymnosperm families, they survey fern species of both ecological and horticultural importance and review such gymnosperm taxa as the conifers--the dominant trees in many forests as well as important timber plants--and cycads, which display significant evolutionary features. In all, the volume assembles 509 species of ferns and fern allies and infraspecific taxa in 70 genera. The editors have revised nearly 80 of these taxa...

Flora of North America, Volume 3, provides information on many of the most familiar wildflowers and trees in North America. Included are treatments of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), with such plants as delphiniums and columbines, and the poppy family (Papveraceae). Most of the important broadleaf tree species are covered, including the oaks (Fagaceae), elms (Ulmaceae), birches (Betulaceae), walnuts (Juglandaceae), plane trees (Platanaceae), and magnolias (Magnoliaceae). Many striking families are covered, such as the dutchman's pipe family (Aristolochiaceae), and the aquatic families...

Flora of North America, Volume 22, comprises many groups of aquatic plants and the North American relatives of groups that have their richest number of species in the New World tropics. Included among the treatments are the rush family (Juncaceae), which include important indicator species in wetland habitats, the cat-tails (Typhaceae), spiderworts (Commelinaceae, ), aroids (Araceae), and pondweeds (Potamogetonaceae). Thirty families are included in this volume, representing a diverse range of plant forms - from marine Zosteraceae (eel-grasses) to stately Arecaeae (palms) and the naturalized...