Botany A to Z: Field Guides

by Karin Decker

is for field guide.

First law of botanizing (really, all field work): You can never have too many field guides:

A very small sample of guides used in Colorado.

It’s a safe bet that most CNHP employees have, at any one time, dozens of field guides, keys, floras, and other helpful books for identifying plants and animals, in their office, their vehicle, or their backpack. Heck, a lot of us own six or seven different versions of the same guide. Because, well...they don't last forever:

Which leads to the Second law: Use them.

Staff submitted samples of some of their most used current guides:

Zoologist Rob Schorr - Rob says he chiseled a copy of the vegetation guide onto granite tablets to replace his beat-up field copy (would that make it a Xerocks copy?).

Botanist Susan Spackman-Panjabi – Susan’s Colorado Flora (known to botanists as “Weber”) has a classic modification for field use – spiral binding. Four-wheel drive not included.

Botanist Bernadette Kuhn – Bernadette thinks she lags behind because she hasn’t been doing field work as long as some of us –  looks like she will catch up in no time.

Ecologist Denise Culver – Denise wins the prize for most field guides missing covers

Director Dave Anderson – Dave has a serious contender for most mileage on a Weber.

Botanist Pam Smith – Pam's is on the right - with a completely pristine, never-been-outdoors copy on the left for comparison.  Pam gets my vote as the current champion for most heavily used guide.