Another volume in the popular New Naturalist Series, this book covers all aspects of the plant life of Britain and Ireland. Michael Proctor, an expert in his field, discusses the development of the landscape of Britain and Ireland from prehistoric times, including the influence of people and their agricultural practices on the vegetation. He provides a comprehensive account of all the different types of plant habitat in Britain and Ireland: from woodlands and scrubland to meadows and grasslands, from wetlands and peatlands to heaths, and from the mountain vegetation to the sea coast. He examines the history and ecology of each of these habitats, and describes the rich variety of flora found living there. The author concludes with an account of the changes to our landscape which have taken place during the twentieth century, and prospects for the future, including the effects of environmental change.

Combines the species and habitat approaches to plants and vegetation. This book features 700 plant species that are selected as those which are common, conspicuous or useful ecological indicators; species which collectively make up most of the vegetation in Britain and Ireland.

The first comprehensive, single book on plant communities in the British uplands, providing concise descriptions of all currently recognised British upland vegetation types. The book brings together all of the upland communities described in the National Vegetation Classification.

Who first described our native plants? This book attempts to answer that question, starting from almost the dawn of printing, with William Turner's Libellus of 1538. Of course there were medieval herbals in the five centuries or more before Turner, and also there is a vast body of folk-lore, but Turner was the first to describe more than a handful and to do so in print. Thus printed sources are the cornerstone of this work, and the first date is given for each of the 1670 species or aggregates of all the indisputably natives and archaeophytes, including 40 or so species that some have argued as native in the last half-century. But this is supplemented by information from manuscripts and herbaria which enable the display of an earlier date, a date of first evidence, for just under half of that total. The names of the discoverers and the counties where each was first recorded are also given, where known. Though the primary purpose of the book is to show the details of the discovery and recording of each species, it will also show the progress of discovery, leading to somewhat surprising conclusion that most (+/- 85%) of our flora had been described by the 1720s, once the critical, non-lowland and doubtful natives have been omitted. Indeed, the main achievement of these last three centuries has been a consolidation of our knowledge. The very extensive appendices cover the key herbals and floras, the relevant journals, the important works on the history of botany, some of the national herbaria and have a major section of the botanists who actually discovered the plants.--Back cover.

This book describes and illustrates in detail the 760 species of mosses currently known to occur in the British Isles and incorporates the most up-to-date information available on classification and nomenclature, together with recent synonyms. The species descriptions provide information on frequency, ecology, geographical relationships and distribution, including information on protected species and those species at risk. For many species there are footnotes to aid identification. In addition to the species descriptions there are descriptions of families and genera and also introductory information on conservation, collection, preservation and examination of material, together with advice on using the keys. An artificial key to genera provides the only workable comprehensive key published in the English language. This second edition incorporates the very considerable advances in our knowledge of mosses made in the last quarter of the twentieth century and will provide a unique resource for all concerned with these fascinating organisms.

Over the past 50 years, major changes have taken place in the distribution of aquatic plants in Europe. Many species have declined whilst other species have increased in abundance or spread, including several that were originally introduced from the New World. Despite the relative richness of the aquatic flora of Britain and Ireland, it is a neglected area of study. This book is not an identification manual but provides a summary of the distribution, habitat and reproductive biology of 200 taxa in 72 genera, with individual distribution maps, and also summarizes their distribution overseas. A joint project of I.T.E. (now C.E.H.), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Environment Agency.