It is now over 50 years since the grasses of the British Isles were last subject to a book of their own (Hubbard, 1954, revised 1968 & 1984). Changes have since occured regarding the taxonomy of the families to justify a new BSBI Handbook. Grasses of the British Isles attempts to bridge the gap between the taxonomy of the 1980s and new molecular phylogenies that are currently being explored so that what is being offered is something that users will feel comfortable with but which hints at changes that may occur in the near future.
The species descriptions have been kept as brief as possible and are supported by keys to, and detailed descriptions of, tribes and genera, a move that has allowed expansion in other sections of the text. These keys are arranged by tribes and then genus allowing the user to check the specimen against a tribal description before moving on to genus and then on to a species.
Grasses of the British Isles contains descriptions of 15 tribes, 67 genera and 220 species and the information includes description, distribution, habitat and additional information as well as plates illustrating the different species.