New York Flora Association Blog

If you are looking for more current information and photos about New York’s flora, check out our Facebook or Instagram pages which are updated almost daily, especially during the field season.

A new field guide to the orchids of New England and New York is now available.  The photos of Tom Nelson and the text of Eric Lamont (NYFA board member) have produced a very useful and beautiful book.  Characters are discussed in relation to closely related species which is very helpful for field identification and other useful information is included with every species.  There is a series of fruit photos in the front of the book which is also very helpful and unique.  How many times have you wished you knew what orchid it was that you were seeing in fruit.  The small size of the book is a plus for field use so there is no excuse for not knowing what species of Spiranthes that is. It is available on Amazon and in other fine bookstores. – Steve Young

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).

Enter “New York, botany” in the search box and you can come up with a number of historical publications about botany in New York.  It includes famous titles like Torrey’s 1819 Flora of the NYC area as well as Taylor’s 1915 Flora of the Vicinity of New York.  To go to the Library CLICK HERE.

From: Ernie Small & Paul M. Catling

Our book [Small, E. and Catling, P.M. 1999. _Canadian medicinal crops_. NRC
Press, Ottawa. 250 p.

CLICK HERE for the website.

This website is a comprehensive reference guide to important medicinal lants that are native to Canada. Chapters feature species such as ginseng, echinacea, Pacific yew, goldenseal, cascara, witch hazel, and kelp. The explosive interest in herbal products that provide medicinal or health benefits has resulted in a need for information. As well as being vitally important to the public and merchants, medicinal plant information is crucial to farmers, economists, teachers, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical arts professions. Canada has the potential to capitalize on tremendous global marketing opportunities. We are in an excellent position to take advantage of the rapidly expanding market for so-called “nutraceutical crops” (those that are used to produce substances that are both medicinal and nutritional), because many of these are native to Canada and grow well here. This website meets the need for an overview of available information. The user can quickly find details on a particular topic by  examining the categories of information, which include: scientific, English and French names, description and classification, medicinal uses, non-medicinal uses, toxicity, chemistry, importance, ecology, agricultural and commercial aspects, human interest information, and selected key literature. All species are extensively illustrated and distribution maps are included. Introductory chapters address such topics as: the business of growing medicinal plants; the regulatory and legal framework in Canada for producing and marketing medicinal plants; and hazards associated with medicinal plants. Also provided are: an extensive glossary of medicinal and pharmacological terms; and extensive general list of books, review articles and research articles related to Canadian medicinal plants. The increased availability of this information is both important to the agriculture sector and of broad, general interest.

Here is a book that has not been done before but is a great help to identifying trees in the winter or when the leaves and buds are too high off the ground to ID easily. As it says in the Foreword, why hasn’t this done before, especially in an area where the trees are leafless for so long?  Many field guides to trees include photos of the bark but this one has color photos from different ages of the trees to show how bark changes over the life of the tree. There is a nice introduction about the structure and different kinds of bark as well as bark ecology. Make sure you read this section before using the rest of the book. Michael focuses on 67 species of native trees that grow over 30 feet tall. He advises caution when using it in urban parks and streets where many exotics are planted. A series of illustrated keys gets you to the right group of trees which are well illustrated and described. This book will be a great addition to other tree books that we use in the field. No native tree shall go unidentified!

For more info on the book and Michael’s speaking schedule (close to Eastern New York and one in the Catskills in July) click on his website below. – Steve Young

www.knowyourtrees.com

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide received a new look that changed the old yellow-border wildflower cover to a new one featuring a wildflower meadow leading to a shack and a blue title area. The inside has not changed with taxonomy that is very out-of-date. See our sidebar with a link to the updated names.