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Amateur seeks answers to some questions please
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 |
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