The aim of this little book is the same as that of Start to Identify Grasses: to simplify the identification of the commonest British sedges and rushes by using field characters, rather than microscopes and complex keys.
Although the entry level is the same, this is a bigger subject, so the format is correspondingly bigger, with 36 A5 pages. As before, there are copious full-colour images (about 100 in total) of every species and to illustrate virtually every distinction made.
The book is in ten sections, first distinguishing sedges and rushes from grasses and from each other, then picking out salient features to help identify some common rushes and non-Carex sedges. The largest section covers 21 of the most common Carex sedges, using both a Ready Reference Table and a Flowchart, to pin down each identification.
Along the way, there are five picture quizzes, to check that each area has been fully understood before going on to the next. The final section compares the 21 Carex species with some 'confusables'. At the end is a Booklist and Glossary.