The weather patterns and topography of America's Gulf Coast create favorable growing conditions for thousands of species of mushrooms, but the complete region has generally gone unchartered when it comes to mycology. Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States at last delivers an in-depth, high-quality, user-friendly field guide, featuring more than 1,000 common and lesser-known species—some of which are being illustrated in color for the first time. Using easily identifiable characteristics and a color key, the authors enable anyone, whether amateur mushroom hunter or professional mycologists, to discern and learn about the numerous species of mushrooms encountered in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Wild-food enthusiasts will appreciate the information on edibility or toxicity that accompanies each description, and they will also find the book’s detailed instructions for collecting, cleaning, testing, preserving, and cooking wild mushrooms to be of great interest. Providing encyclopedic knowledge in a handy format that fits in a backpack, Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast States is a must-have for any mushroom lover.

Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer is known as the “father of Texas botany.” While he was not the first botanist to collect plants for scientific examination in Texas, his collections are credited with helping botanists around the world to understand the nature, extent, and significance of the diversity of plants in the state. In partnership with Asa Gray of Harvard University, Lindheimer spent eight years collecting Texas plants to distribute to a list of paying subscribers—including places like the British Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the Smithsonian Institution. Today, no fewer than 362 plant names are based, at least in part, on Lindheimer collections, and 65 plants have been named in his honor. Lindheimer was a founding settler of New Braunfels, raising his family on the banks of the Comal River while he continued to collect and ship plant specimens. He was “elected” as the first editor of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung (still published today as the Herald-Zeitung), and served from 1852 to 1872. He wrote a number of articles for the Zeitung on topics ranging from plants, climate, and agriculture to Texas Indian affairs, optimism, and teaching schoolchildren. In the last year of Lindheimer’s life, one of his students worked with him to collect an assortment of his essays and articles from the Zeitung. In 1879, the collection was published as Aufsätze und Abhandlungen von Ferdinand Lindheimer in Texas (Essays and Articles of Ferdinand Lindheimer in Texas). John E. Williams now offers the first English translation of these essays, which provides valuable insight into the natural and cultural history of Texas.

While Barton Springs Pool is an iconic landmark of Austin and many people are familiar with the end of Barton Creek and its seven miles of public greenbelt, less is known about the forty-odd miles beyond that tumble and twist across private lands, eventually feeding the Colorado River. Legendary fights saved Barton Springs in the 1980s and 1990s, when the pool repeatedly was closed because of pollutant runoff from streets, nearby construction, and leaking sewer lines. In 1992, a highly publicized campaign resulted in land protections and stricter water standards. But will the creek and its springs become fouled again? That possibility arises upstream where tributaries and other creeks flow across mostly rural acreage, attracting new housing and business developments. Not only would city bathers lose access to the pool, but endangered species of salamanders and birds that depend on the Edwards Aquifer and its unique habitats face an uncertain future. Following the creek from downtown Austin’s Barton Springs Pool to its source as a cow-pasture trickle, longtime resident and journalist Ed Crowell explores the creek’s contentious political history, its historic and current residents, and the mounting environmental pressures threatening it. Barton Creek highlights the passionate individuals involved in the stream’s preservation, from city scientists to local landowners, who want to see the creek running clear and clean for future generations. Striking photography and vivid descriptions will entice readers to fall in love with Barton Creek all over again.

A treasury like no other Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grew around them, organizing the specimens into collections. Known as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor. Herbarium is a fascinating enquiry into this unique field of plant biology, exploring how herbaria emerged and have changed over time, who promoted and contributed to them, and why they remain such an important source of data for their new role: understanding how the world’s flora is changing. Barbara Thiers, director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, also explains how recent innovations that allow us to see things at both the molecular level and on a global scale can be applied to herbaria specimens, helping us address some of the most critical problems facing the world today. At its heart, Herbarium is a compelling reminder of one of humanity’s better impulses: to save things—not just for ourselves, but for generations to come.

The story of introduced species in Texas is long (hogs were introduced by European settlers in the 1500s) and fraught with controversy. In Unnatural Texas? The Invasive Species Dilemma, Robin W. Doughty and Matt Warnock Turner introduce the “big hitters” of invasive species in the state. They profile the usual suspects—feral hogs, salt cedar, and fire ants—and also lesser known invasives, such as cats and sparrows. Blending natural and environmental history with geography, this book is a much-needed, balanced exploration of invasive species in Texas. The distinctions between native and invasive are not hard and fast, and perceptions of what is invasive have changed over the centuries. A striking example, free-ranging cats—domestic, stray, and feral—can wreak havoc on small mammal and bird populations. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for invasives, and removal or complete eradication may not be possible or even desirable. The dilemma of what to do about invasive species also raises moral, social, economic, and cultural questions. This engaging introduction to the concept of invasive species in Texas will provide context for readers and will educate people on this important issue facing the state.

In more than four decades as president of The Land Institute, Wes Jackson became widely known as one of the founders of the sustainable agriculture movement for his work on perennial grains and Natural Systems Agriculture. But Jackson’s contribution to contemporary intellectual and political life goes well beyond plant breeding. Ever since he created one of the first university environmental studies programs in the early 1970s, Jackson has been exploring the human predicaments around sustainability and justice, asking questions that pull not only on agriculture and ecology but also on politics, economics, and culture. That work has appeared in four sole-authored books by Jackson, but nowhere is there an accessible summary of his key ideas. Robert Jensen provides a short, elegant introduction to Jackson’s ideas on ways to provide humanity with a truly sustainable foundation in grain agriculture, presented in a way that connects to the growing concern about climate change and other ecological crises. Jackson’s strength has been in generating new ideas and pushing the envelope not only on sustainable agriculture but also on the other dramatic changes necessary if we are to create a sustainable and just society. This volume helps the reader to organize those exciting ideas in a way that can expand the horizons of students and lay readers as well as challenge specialists in these fields. In a time when critical thinking and clear understanding are desperately needed if we are to face the multiple, cascading ecological and social crises, The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson presents Jackson’s crucial insights about the natural world and human societies that can help provide a framework for understanding the tough decisions we will have to make. But just as important is the book’s glimpse into the curiosity that drives Jackson and the creativity that distinguishes his intellectual and activist work.

This book is devoted to anyone who is in search of beauty in mathematics, and mathematics in the beauty around us. Attempting to combine mathematical rigor and magnificence of the visual perception, the author is presenting the mathematical study of phyllotaxis, the most beautiful phenomenon of the living nature. The distinctive feature of this book is an animation feature that explains the work of mathematical models and the transformation of 3D space. The analysis of the phyllotactic pattern as a system of discrete objects together with the mathematical tools of generalized sequences made it possible to find a universal algorithm for calculating the divergence angle. In addition, it is serving as a new proof of the fundamental theorem of phyllotaxis and analytically confirming well-known formulas obtained intuitively earlier as well as casting some doubts on a few stereotypes existing in mathematical phyllotaxis. The presentation of phyllotaxis morphogenesis as a recursive process allowed the author to formulate the hydraulic model of phyllotaxis morphogenesis and propose a method for its experimental verification. With the help of artificial intelligence, the author offered methodology for the digital measurement of phyllotaxis allowing a transition to a qualitatively new level in the study of plant morphogenesis. Due to the successful combination of mathematical constructions and their visual presentation, the materials of this study are comprehensible to readers with high school advanced mathematical levels.