Grasses: An Identification Guide

This is a very nice, simple identification book. I very much appreciate the drawings, every grass has at least one page with drawings sometimes of different stages of the life cycle, there is an identification guide in the beginning of the book,and a glossery of terms in the back. I am a beginning grass identifier; this is my first grass identification book and I think it is a terrific choice.

I love being able to identify all the difference grasses. This one covers more than I need but is wonderful to have for reference when traveling

I bought this book when it first came out, and it's still the only basic Northeastern grass ID book available. Though it has some shortcomings and isn't comprehensive, it is an easy-to-use field guide that identifies the most common grasses in this area. It also includes a number of rushes and sedges. The key is simple but effective. The drawings aren't greatly detailed, but usually highlight the main identification features of a grass. Some botanic names may have changed since the guide was published, but this isn't of great importance to the amateur botanist and can easily be handled by the professional (botanic names are always in a state of flux). When working as a botanist in the field (but without extensive knowledge of grasses), I found this guide very useful for either ID or for narrowing an ID down to a genus. As my ID's needed to be accurate, I'd confirm the ID or make a final ID with more detailed books like Pohl's "How to Know the Grasses" or Fernald's "Gray's Manual of Botany." Yes, I could (and often need to) start with one of these two, but Brown's simpler guide is often a real shortcut. If I can find a grass, or something that strongly resembles it, in her book, it can save a lot of time with the more technical keys. For someone in the Northeast with an interest in identifying the many fascinating grasses in our area, this is a great book to have on hand.

I am a former student of Mrs. Brown, from her Botany class at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. This guide is outstanding, and her original illustrations are genuine. As of the time of the original publication, there was absolutely nothing at all to guide students to identify grasses. Other guides copied the concept, but Lauren's is still the pioneer in this field.

This has got to be best "first book" generally available for anyone with the least passing interest in wild plants to buy and use to discover the spectacular world of sedges and rushes, as well as grasses, especially if you are thinking about looking more carefully at wild plants in the northeast. It marked--and sparked-- the very beginning of my own personal interest in botany, guided my first field trips into the New Jersey Pine Barrens, led me to a botanical club and courses in sedge identification, and ultimately opened up the world of botany to me. I was so excited I wanted to call the author and thank her for writing this book.