Aquatic and standing water plants of the central Midwest from orchids to cattails. This convenient reference volume includes descriptions, nomenclature, ecological information, and identification keys to plants in all of the monocot families except sedges - which are covered in the first volume in the series - that are found in Kentucky (except for the Cumberland region), Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Monocots covered in this volume include ferns, conifers, grasses, rushes, orchids, duckweeds, irises, sweet flags, arrowheads, aroids, flowering rushes, pipeworts, frog-bits, arrowgrasses, naiads, pickerelweeds, pondweeds, bur reeds, cattails, and yellow-eyed grasses. Robert H. Mohlenbrock includes three types of plants: submergents, those that spend their entire lives with their vegetative parts either completely submerged or at least floating on the water's surface; emergents, which are typically rooted under-water with their vegetative parts standing out of water; and a third category of plants that live most of their lives out of water, but which may live in water at least three months a year. With taxa arranged alphabetically, the volume is well organized and easy to use. In addition, basic synonymy, description, distribution, comments, and line drawings show the habits and distinguishing features for each plant. Habitat and nomenclatural notes are also listed, as are the official wetland designations given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Robert H. Mohlenbrock taught botany at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for thirty-four years, earning the title of Distinguished Professor. After his retirement in 1990, he joined Biotic Consultants as a senior scientist teaching wetland identification classes in twenty-six states to date. Mohlenbrock has been named SIU Outstanding Scholar and has received the SIU Alumnus Teacher of the Year Award, the AMOCO Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Meritorious Teacher of the Year Award from the Association of Southeastern Biologists. Since 1984, he has been a monthly columnist for Natural History magazine. Among his fifty books and more than five hundred and sixty publications are Macmillan's Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Field Guide to the U.S. National Forests, and Where Have All the Wildflowers Gone?