Library Guides: Plant Identification and Foraging: Flowering and Nonwoody Plants

Field Guides and Databases

Wildflowers, Grasses, and other Nonwoody Plants
The Missouri Department of Conservation's field guide identifies plants using their common and Latin names, pictures, and can be sorted by skin irritating, frost blooming, and thorny.
Weed ID Guide
University of Missouri's Division of Plant Sciences lists weed species by common and Latin names, and includes an identification key in the form of a picture-assisted quiz.
Wildflower Identification Tool
MyWildflower's website identification tool can be searched using petal type, color, plant size, month of blooming, etc. The browse tool can narrow flowers by location, flower color, or by family.
Wildflower Search
Wildflower Search can be narrowed by location, elevation, time of observation, as well as leaf type, flower color, and number of petals.
Common Grasses and Meadow Plants
A PDF guide from the New Hampshire Extension for identifying common grasses and grass-like plants, and where they most often grow.
Find Plants
This identification tool from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center allows the user to search by common or Latin name, family, height, color, bloom time, sun requirement, and soil moisture.
Common Garden Weeds
The Old Farmer's Almanac defines, lists, and describes thirteen common garden weeds. Also detailed is how to control their spread, and their edibility.
Missouri Plants Index
Missouri Plants' Index separates its plant identification into links based from petal color and arrangement. Links lead to a picture album of specific plants. There are also lists of plants by common name, Latin name, and by family.

eBooks

Flowering Plants : Pokeweeds, Four-O'clocks, Carpetweeds, Cacti, Purslanes, Goosefoots, Pigweeds, and Pinks
First published in 1987, Ralph W. Tiner's A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Northeastern United States soon established itself as the definitive work on its subject. Now Tiner has prepared a revised and expanded edition, broadening the coverage both botanically and geographically. It emphasizes plant identification and includes descriptions of over 700 species and illustrations of approximately 550 species.
Grasses of the Great Plains
This comprehensive guide, written by three grass specialists, is an invaluable tool for identification of the approximately 450 species of grasses that occur on the Great Plains. In each description, the authors cover distribution, habitat, forage value, and toxicity and include a detailed black-and-white illustration of the grass as well as a range map.

Print Books

Name That Flower by Ian Clarke; Helen Lee
This is a bestselling source of information on how to go about identifying flowering plants. The dissection of flowers, the methods of observing their structure, and the application of these to identification are clearly described. Profusely illustrated with over 130 detailed line drawings and black and white images, this book contains a comprehensive chapter on floral structure, and introductions to the arrangement of flowers on plants, reproduction, plant structure and function, and the way plants are grouped and named.
Flowering Plant Families of the World by R. K. Brummitt; V. H. Heywood; O. Seberg; A. Culham
The definitive reference on flowering plants, thoroughly revised. The widely acclaimed Flowering Plants of the World, the original edition of this book, has never been surpassed in its depth and scope. Written by a team of internationally recognized authorities, this thoroughly updated edition provides the latest information and solidifies the book's position as the definitive guide on the subject. At the core of the book are the comprehensive entries on 504 flowering plant families. Each entry describes distribution, anatomy, habitat, classification and commercial uses.
The Identification of Flowering Plant Families by James Cullen
This short, user-friendly guide provides all the information necessary to identify the flowering plant families found in the wild or cultivated in northern temperate regions. In total, 286 families are covered by the bracketed identification keys, which are accompanied by a comprehensive explanatory guide to their use. A fully illustrated discussion of floral structure and terminology precedes the keys and brief descriptions of the families (arranged according to the Engler and Prantl system) follow. A chapter giving advice on identification beyond the level of family, plus an annotated bibliography and glossary complete the volume.