Plants

» Plants » Trees  » Wildflowers (Herbs) » Ferns  » Grasses  » Mosses  » Algae  » Edible Plants « Ontario Field Naturalist's Toolchest

Classification of Plants Vascular Plants Non-vascular Woody Trees Shrubs Herbs Mosses Mosses Liverworts Hornworts Ferns Ferns  Horsetails Club-Mosses Algae   Grasses Grasses Sedges Rushes     Plants  Plants of Southern Ontario Am A general plant guide for southern Ontario up to Sudbury, North Bay and Sault St. Marie. Covers trees, shrubs, wildflowers, grasses. ferns and aquatic plants. Forest Plants of Central Ontario Pub GB Covers common trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns, grasses, sedges, clubmosses, horsetails, mosses,  lichens and more.    There is an edition for Northeastern Ontario as well.  None for southern or western Ontario though. Wetland Plants of Ontario GB Similiar to Forest Plants of Cental Ontario but focuses on wetlands and covers all of Ontario. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada Am GB Covers all our vascular plants (woody plants, ferns and grasses but not mosses and their allies).  A comprehensive book that is rather scientific, expensive and recommended only for advanced plant enthusiasts.   Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual GB The manual of vascular plants is primarily a key and this book provides illustrations to make it easier to use. The Book of Forest and Thicket GB The Book of Swamp and Bog GB The Book of Field and Roadside GB The coverage of these three books is eastern North America.  These books are not field guides in the conventional sense. Only common plants are covered but the write ups on each plant is superb.  The write ups explores the connections between plants, bugs and their habitats. This makes these books more interesting than typical field guides and is likely to attract interest from bugsters.   Winter Botany GB In the wintertime not much is going on in nature so for people interested in plants Winter Botany might cure the winter blues.. A Naturalists Guide to Field Plants GB General natural history of plants. The Vascular Plants of the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario Blog Am The Flora of Manitoulin Island (third edition) Pub Vascular Plants of Thickson's Woods Pub A Checklist Field, Forest, Hedgerow A hiker's wildflower guide for Prince Edward County Pub Haliburton Flora Archive Checklist of Vascular Plants of Thunder Bay District Flora of North America Series Plants Of The Kingston Region GB Plants of Quetico and the Ontario Shield GB  Two different regional plant guides Checklist of Vascular Plants of Thunder Bay District Pub Flora of North America (Series) Pub A series of book and a website on all the flora of North America. Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers: A Field Guide to Common Wildflowers and Plants of the Prairie Midwest GB Common flowers seen in tallgrass prairie, an rare habitat in Ontario. Michigan Flora Am Wetland Plants of Wisconsin Am  Wetland Plants of Michigan Am A Great :Lakes Wetland Flora Am Bogs & Fens: A Guide to the Peatland Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada Am The Big, Bad Book of Botany GB A Naturalist's Guide to Field Plants: An Ecology for Eastern North America GB A Naturalist's Guide to Wetland Plants: An Ecology for Eastern North America GB A Naturalist's Guide to Forest Plants: An Ecology for Eastern North America GB Some websites on plants in general: Go Botany Has a bunch of useful keys for the New England area.  Terms are illustrated as you go. Flora of North America Comprehensive guide to the plants of North America, but not complete. Northern Ontario Plant Database Extensive, southern limit of coverage is North Bay, Ontario. Astereae Lab All the asters and goldenrods of Ontario and somewhat beyond are covered.  Interestingly a rather new goldenrod species has been described in 2013 and occurs in Ontario -- Brenda's Goldenrod. Muskoka Flora An Annotated Checklist of Vascular Plants University of Guelph Arboretum  Fowler Herbarium at Queen's University  Andy's Northern Ontario Wildflowers Has nice habitat pictures and includes info on mosses, fungi, mushrooms, lichen and ferns. Wildflowers of Ontario Ontario Weeds Michigan Flora - University of Michigan Herbarium A key to plants with photos, compreshensive Southern Ontario Vascular Plant Species List Omits some northern and western species (about 500 out of 3400)  but otherwise a fairly complete list of plants for Ontario.  3rd edition, 2013 Identification Of Major Fruit Types Go Botany: Discover Thouands of New England Plants Canadian Museum of Nature - Our Collections - Search Collector A collector search engine. Information about collectors for specific plants.  Use after searching the link above Native Plants Database Common Weeds of Ontario A PDF The Biota of North America Program Lots of neat maps, but mostly for the United States.  Distribution maps of species. Lake Huron Coastal Dune Plants Guide The Good, the Bad and the Ugly LSU Herbaria Loads of stuff.  Keys, links etc. iPhone apps: Florafolio Botany Buddy   In particular, iPhone apps for plants like these two could be the field guide of choice to plants.  But their databases needs much more information if they are to replace paper field guides. Trees  Trees In Canada Am GB The recommended book for trees.  Now in a second edition lightly updated. Trees and Shrubs GB Also quite good. Shrubs of Ontario Am Archive The only book on shrubs for Ontario. Ontario's Old Growth Forests Pub Am A field guide not on trees but where you can find pockets of the oldest forests in Ontario. Bark: A Field Guide to the Trees of the Northeast Pub Am Trees of Ontario Pub GB An OK field guide to trees. Remarkable Trees of the World Am GB Features many of the oddest trees in the world. Tree Identification Book GB An older tree identification guide. Field guide to native oak species of eastern North America GB(Full text) We only get a few species of oak but you can see this book in its entirety. Wildberries of Ontario Pub Trees of Eastern North America GB Woody Plants of the Northern Forest Pub Am Excellent photograpic guide to most trees and shrubs of our area.  Also comes in a fold out chart and a digital atlas is coming out June 2019. Illustrated Guide to Trees and Shrubs  GB Am State of Eastern Ontario's Forests Three printable keys: a coniferous and a winter and summer deciduous key. Upper Peninsula TREE  IDENTIFICATION  KEY Good online key but Michigan based. Ontario Trees and Shrubs Walter Muma's site on trees and shrubs. Leafsnap A field guide to leaves, flowers and fruits of trees that is available online and as an app.  Misses some Ontario species but well presented. Tree Diseases of Eastern Canada PDF Field Guide to Tree Diseases of Ontario PDF These two books on trees diseases are rather similiar Diseases of Trees and Shrubs For North America Wildflowers  Newcomb's Wildflower Guide GB Am Interesting key system.  You create a three digit key out of flower type, plant type and leaf key.  Then you follow, if necessary, a standard dichotomous the rest of the way.  The most useful wildflower guide. A Field Guide to Wildflowers GB Color based guide.  Great, but requires a lot of page flipping. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification Am Useful anywhere in the world.  Teaches how to identify plant families. ROM Guide to the Wildflowers of Ontario GB Comprehensive and the only one with range maps. Ranges of plants in Ontario are poorly known so the range maps are fairly crude. Ontario Wildflowers: 101 Wayside Flowers Pub GB A beginner's guide to wildflowers.  Not many species are covered. A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter GB Wildflowers and Winter Weeds GB These last two books may cure the winter blues of some wildflower fanatics.  The first one is northeastern North America based and the second is based in Michigan. The Asters, Goldenrods, and Fleabanes of Grey and Bruce Counties Pub GB This book does these types of wildflowers best.  Don't bother trying to learn the difficult to identify asters and goldenrods without them.  Note that it is regional and doesn't cover all the species of these wildflower families. The Goldenrods of Ontario Review GB The Asters of Ontario Review GB These two books are more technical and are recommended if you are really into goldenrods and asters. Aster in Wisconsin PDF Pictures of the flowers in the genus aster Solidago & relatives in Wisconsin PDF Same for the goldenrods Keys to the asteraceae of Wisconsin Keys to the entire composite family A Guide to the Orchids of Bruce and Grey Counties Pub GB A local guide to orchids from the hotspot for orchids in Ontario.  Most of Ontario's species are covered. The Wild Orchids of North America, North of Mexico GB Native Orchids of North America North of Mexico GB Two North American book on orchids.   Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region GB Ontario Weeds Pub Weeds of North America Am Weeds of the Northeast Am Websites on wildflowers include: Ontario Wildflowers variety of resources about wildflowers including a forum. Andy's Northern Ontario Wildflowers has nice habitat pictures and includes info on mosses, fungi, mushrooms, lichen and ferns.  Wildflower Identification a engine to identify wildflowers and has quizzes to help you. Wildflower Photos  is a field guide to wildflowers of far eastern Ontario. Goldenrods of the Ottawa Region Cinquefoils of the Ottawa Region Asters of the Ottawa Region Violets of the Ottawa Region Wild Orchids of Northern Ontario Doug Adams, a lodge operator has a mini field guide to the orchids -- many rare -- he found in Temigami.  He is up to 22 species as of 2009 and could find even more in 2010. Native Orchids of Canada Sparganium identification key and species descriptions Keys to the small bur-reed family for Wisconsin.  Covers most if not all of Ontario's species (it covers all six for Algonquin Provincial Park) Sparganium Research Page Parent page to Sparganium identification key   Ferns  The Ferns of Grey and Bruce Counties Pub GB The recommended beginner's book to ferns.  Covers most of the ferns of Ontario.  Does not cover the fern allies. Peterson Field Guide to Ferns, Second Edition GB Covers the rest of the ferns of Ontario and allies, and is another recommended book.  It is a bit cumbersome in some respects. Ferns, Horsetails & Clubmosses of the North Woods Am I really like this field guide and personally choose it the recommended guide.  It uses photographs which most of the other fern book don't have and thus shows things that illustrations can not convey.  The fern sections are organized into forest, wet areas and rocky areas.  So for people who like to flip pages instead of following keys, this guide is fast.  For difficult ferns and species not in this guide, the Petersons guide can fill in the gaps. Fern Finder GB Good for beginners, easy to carry.  A compact dichotomous key. A Natural History of Ferns GB Very few books cover the natural history of ferns, but this one does. Midest Ferns Am Northeast Ferns Am Henry Potters Field Guide to the Hybrid Ferns of the Northeast Am Ferns and fern allies of Canada  Archive Ferns and fern allies of Canada Am Updated.  Both books include distriubtion maps Ontario Ferns A website on ferns, horsetails and club-mosses. Ferns and Fern Allies of Wisconsin Ferns of the Ottawa District (PDF) Grasses  Grasses: An Identification Guide GB The recommended guide to break into identifying grasses and allies.  Good coverage of grasses, less so of sedges and rushes and non-polales lookalikes. Field Guide to Wisconsin Grasses GB Grasses of Ontario GB PDF Out of print but useful for its range maps. How to Identify Grasses and Grass-like Plants Review Am Also recommended.  Mostly an illustrated glossary. Grasses of the Northeast: A Manual of the Grasses of New England and Adjacent New York Am Manual of Grasses for North America GB Sedges of the Northern Forest Pub Cornell Am Fantastic photographic guide.  Also available as a foldout chart and as a digital atlas.  Note that the digtial atlas is free. Sedges and Rushes of Minnesota Pub Am Outstanding comprehensive guide. Field Guide to Wisconsin Sedges GB Has some useful info on habitat. Ontario Grasses On grasses, sedges and rushes. Grasses in North America A detailed guide to the grasses of North America north of Mexico.  Includes range maps, illustrations, images and other information.  Incomplete and illustrations are small. Tallgrass Ontario Resources on a rare habitat in Ontario. Poaceae A key to grasses Introduction to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes PDF   Mosses  A Graphic Guide to Ontario Mosses Pub GB An overview of Ontario mosses.  Know this book well before proceding further as there are few other friendly field guides (with the exception of the next one). Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians Am GB Nicest field guide, and the best you can get before heading towards the technical books. Outstanding Mosses & Liverworts of Pennsylvania & Nearby States Am Field Guide to the Peat Mosses of Boreal North America Am GB Covers spaghum mosses only but has color plates. The Elfin World of Mosses and Liverworts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale GB Am Not quite Ontario, but is for the layman.  Color photographs included.  Cover 123 species of mosses and liverworts.  Isle Royale is a large island in the middle of Lake Superior. Checklist of the Mosses of Ontario Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest Pub GB Am Comprehensive. Mosses of Eastern North America GB Comprehensive but for a larger geographic area than the similar preceding one. Checklist of the Mosses of Ontario GB Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts: A Field Guide to Common Bryophytes of the Northeast Pub How to Knows the Mosses and Liverworts Archive Am An Enthusiasts Guide to the Liverworts and Hornworts of Ontario Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses GB A natural history book on mosses. The Structure and Life of Bryophytes GB Another natural history book on mosses but more technical. An Enthusiasts Guide to the Liverworts and Hornworts of Ontario Pub  The book for the close relatives of mosses.  First half is a key, second half has species descriptions with line drawings on the facing page.  Six pages of color photographs. Spiral bound paperback Liverworts of New England: A Guide for the Amateur Naturalist Am Mosses Lichens & Ferns of Northwest North America GB World of Mosses Robert Muma's website is quite an interesting introduction to the subject of mosses. His field guide A Graphic Guide to Ontario Mosses is available online or in book form.  The book is not professionally bound (it is 8 pages printed out, folded in half with two staples with a green cover) but the information inside is valuable. Bryophyte Flora of North America A comprehensive website on mosses, liverworts and hornworts of North America. A Perspective Oriented Guide for the Identification of North American Bryophyte Genera Minnesota's Bryophytes Four books available in PDF format. Covers mosses and liverworts.  One book is an illustrated glossary. Algae Algae are the least known of the plants.  To really study them you do really need a microscope and go through rather technical field guides.  Small organisms like algae offer the opportunity to bring nature appreciation indoors as you study them through a microscope.  Not many books have been published on the subject. Freshwater Algae GB How to Know the Freshwater Algae GB How to Know the Seaweeds GB Good but dated field guides. Freshwater Algae of North America GB Comprehensive and technical. Diatoms of North America GB Short book on a type of algae.   Common Freshwater Algae of the United States: An illustrated Key to the Genera (Excluding the Diatoms) GB Freshwater algae General key to freshwater algae.  Edible Plants  A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides) GB The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America GB A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides)  GB