Collins Wild Flower Guide: The Authoritative Illustrated Reference for Identifying Over 1900 Species

I’ve just started my plant journey, it is like learning a new language but this book is brilliant for me being UK based. I’ve learnt how to identify some plants already! 😄

It's a comprehensive presentation of the UK's vascular plants, covering the truly wild ones and the common garden escapes (horsetails, ferns, flowers and trees). Each group of plants has an identification key, which helps with those plants that are samey. Keys may use some obscure features, so you will need the plant in front of you when using them. You need to be sufficiently familiar to start in the right place. The pictures are designed as support, but there are easier illustrations elsewhere. If all else has failed, this book will probably get you and ID. It's not a pocket book - it won't fit and it weighs over 1.2 kg.

I’m currently studying Ecology and Conservation so I needed a good book to help me identify plants. For someone that has no previous knowledge on plants this book of very useful for me as it includes pictures as well as clear descriptions.

Detail and ease of use.

i disliked nothing. i am a fan of Collins books and own at least 100.

A good all round guide, that is not too difficult too use, generally speaking. The pictures of grasses are not very good. But like all botany guides, it is not perfect. In fact you will not get a perfect guide. And things like Stace, Sell & Murrel, BSBI guides, FSC guides are often more comprehensive, but often more difficult to use. Having said that, i tend to take this along with John Poland, and maybe something else. Note if going to the scilly Isles, don't bother taking this book- use Stace, and if looking at pondweeds, use the BSBI handbook.

Brilliant for field botany across Ireland and the British isles. Keys easy to read through and understand, images are detailed and clear, contains a ruler along the back of the book which is a plus. Make sure you have space in your bag as it's pretty hefty.

This is an expert guide that includes ferns, grasses, trees and shrubs as well as wildflowers. You only need this level of detail if you want to identify plants to species as opposed to genus level e.g. speedwells belong to the genus Veronica, the common germander speedwell is Veronica chamaedrys. I bought it because I want to learn how to identify grasses to at least genus level, and sometimes to species level. To do this effectively, a hand lens is essential as well as the book. Identifying plants with any degree of certainty requires patience to work through the various steps as well as a keen eye. I've yet to discover how good an app like iNaturalist, which relies on photographs, compares to manual identification. The 2 together should make a powerful combination as the app gives a suggestion which can then be confirmed (or not) using the book. This novice is on a steep learning curve but I'm confident I've now got the right tools for the job.

Super detailed and I always use this book to further determine and inform myself about plants I encountered along my walks

Super, echt ausführlich mit guten key's, bin vollkommen zufrieden :)