Hello,

My name is Robyn and I live in Michigan. I hope you do not mind this post
and I hope it is not too off topic or too long.

For several years now I have tried to do some flower and vegetable gardening
at home here. Increasingly I have become more and more into doing this
without using chemicals (man made). So, I have a "problem" with "weeds". I
know there are "natural" methods of controlling "weeds". But I have
developed an interest in herbal medicine, and I am trying to learn which
"weeds" to "fight" and which ones to encourage.

I live in an urban area, and there are some legal restrictions as to the
type and size of plants I can grow. Over the years I have grown to dislike
the word "weed". Some of the "weeds" have a use in herbal medicine; they
may have pretty flowers, or if left alone the birds may find them as a food
source.

I am also becoming reacquainted with the scientific interest I had as a
child.
I would like to be able to identify the plants that grow "naturally" in the
yard. I would also like to just be able to identify plants in general. I
have a modern herb book that has loads of pictures, but it does not have
every plant I see. It helps to have the common name of the plant in order
to use this book. (One problem with common names is that they vary from
place to place. I do not always know common names to the plants anyway.) I
also have a wonderful book "Plants of Michigan" by Gleason. (Third edition
1939) The main problem with this book is, it has no drawings or
photographs. It is mostly plant descriptions in text. Unless you know the
name of the plant, it is difficult to use. Then there are cases where two
or more plants share the same common name. This book also uses a lot of
Latin words. (I could probably learn the meanings to the Latin words easily
enough.) (I also have a couple of botany textbooks from the late 1800's.)

Finally my questions:
Can someone recommend to me a good modern book that could teach me some
basic things about botany? I would like to find a book that has good
drawings or photos of the parts of plants. I would like to learn what the
various words mean and see a good drawing or photograph of an example. (for
example, "Evenly pinnate" I would read the definition and then I would see a
drawing of "a compound leaf terminating in a pair of leaflets".) I hope I
am making sense with my description.

I was trying to find a list of "recommended botany books" on the net. I
read somewhere that botany teachers do not find botany textbooks to be very
accurate.

I just want to be able to read the text description in my old book, [or any
book] and then be able to find the plant in the woods or in the yard. And
then if I see an unusual plant, in the yard, it would be nice to be able to
find it in a book, if I do not know the name of it. I am not expecting to be
able to identify every plant I run across. (I am not sure if that is
available.)

Would the Latin plant names in my "Plants of Michigan" from 1939 still be
valid? I was also reading on the net an introduction to botanical
classification. It indicated that things have changed with the advent of
DNA.

Any help in this matter will be most appreciated.

Thanks. Robyn in Michigan aka LenoraBell