Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, Volume 3 Hardcover – Illustrated, August 1, 2013

This review pertains to all three volumes of the Flora of Missouri by Yatskievych.This is probably the most extensive flora written for any state--not in the number of species, but in the amount of detail provided. I own most of the floras of eastern North America, and this, along with Great Plains and Virginia, are my go-to sources for studying the technical differences between plants. The amount of work that goes into a book like this is impressive (although the larger print than other floras makes the size slightly misleading). The thorough examination of specimens and detailed descriptions of the plants are highly appreciated, as is the discussion of taxonomic relationships, nomenclatural history, natural history, habitat, and the range maps. I have followed many of the references to learn more about specific plants. The keys are well-written and clear. The illustrations for each species are an added value that few floras contain, and the illustrations are well-done.Although I definitely give this work a 5-star rating, I will bring attention to a few of the problems I have with the book(s). There are a number of errors of transposition in the plates, where the letters used to indicate the names of the illustrated plants are located next to the wrong drawings. This will confuse the less experienced, or people not double-checking the text descriptions against the illustrations, or people not cross-referencing another flora. I have certainly not read every account and looked at every plate, but I have found 4 such rather egregious mislabelings, and suppose that there will be more to discover. Some of the technical descriptions are inaccurate, as well. For example, the description of Ligusticum canadense says that the inflorescence is twice compound. Actually, it is thrice compound, and when the individual components are described, the author does this is done in a way that makes it evident that the inflorescence is 3x compound. While it's impossible that a work of this magnitude could be completed without errors, they seem more frequent in here than in other floras that I use. Lastly, I find that in the comments there are often highly questionable statements, many of them referenced to secondary or tertiary sources. For example, his comments about the toxicity of Sium suave and Heracleum ignores the very well established use of these genera as food in North America, Europe, and Asia. His historical comments about Cannabis are grossly inaccurate in places, and some of his cited sources for that information are highly questionable. So, while the book is very large, it seems that it was perhaps a bit too large. Better to reduce the quantity than write more material than can be researched well.

It is great to complete this series, which is a great contribution and a must for anyone dealing with Missouri plants. Most of the treatments are very usable, but this work needs a key to families. I thought that that might appear in this volume, and I hope it will be coming up as a separate publication.

The book is well done. My main difficulties with it are the highly technical vocabulary in the keys and the drawings done from herbarium sheets rather than living plants. They do not always look the same. Otherwise, I have managed to identify several plants using the book.

I now have all three volumes of this series and they are fabulous.

Series now complete with Volume 3. Excellent detailed keys and taxonomic interpretation of the vascular plants of Missouri and surrounding states. Precise descriptions, useful distribution delineation and range maps, plus insightful and relevant commentaries make this a must-have regional flora.

If you really want to get a sense of the diversity of life in Missouri, you must own all 3 volumes of Steyermark

Would have been hard to follow class without this great book. Love to have this one in my collection og gardening books.

Great