Reviews (1)

The moss "bible"
This is a very comprehensive set.This is a very useful key with invaluable drawings. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Canada    2. East (U.S.)    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Mosses    5. Mosses (Musci)    6. Nature    7. Plants - General    8. Botany & plant sciences    9. North America    10. Plant life: general    11. Reference works    12. Science / Botany   

Reviews (7)

The Joy of... or HYI?
The other reviews, both positive and negative, seem to be on the mark. I think the words, "The Joy of" should have preceded the title. I was personally looking for a little more of the "How to" in this book about gardening. '...not much about lichens. It was both funny and long winded at times. It was beautiful but not as informative as I would have liked. This makes a great, compact sized, coffee table book but not a very good HYI text book.

Would be a better book if the author could get over himself
I read this book from cover to cover and while it does have some great information the author is far too long winded and can't seem to stay on track. He seems to have an ego far larger than the minute moss he writes about and it really ruined the book for me.
Esoteric, beautiful, reverent book for moss & lichen lovers
This is a beautiful book, and I treasure it.I've shared it with several others who value the green mosses and lichens of the outdoors and they were also impressed.It is high quality paper, every picture (abundant) is in color.The descriptions are thorough.It is a treasured book of mine, one of my favorites for information and for pleasure.The joy of moss and worts. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. General    5. Horticulture (Specific Aspects)    6. Moss gardening    7. Mosses    8. Ornamental Plants    9. Plants - General    10. Gardening / Reference    11. Gardening: plants    12. Specialized gardening methods   

Editorial Review

This remarkable compendium, the first (and perhaps last) of its kind, gathers current knowledge on the North American continent's store of lichens--those hard-to-classify, symbiotic composites of fungi and other organisms such as algae and cyanobacteria.Read more

Reviews (12)

Unbelievable
Sensational resource on lichens, and the science of lichenology.Absolutely, unequivocally worth every penny.The best book in the field.

Gorgeous book
The most beatiful and informative book on lichens I�ve ever seen. The quality is amazing. It is a delight to read from cover to cover. And it is a true bargain at the price list.

Superlative in every way
First, this book is enormous!800 full-size glossy pages - it must weigh 15 pounds.Not something you want to carry around in your backpack.Read more

Subjects:  1. Identification    2. Lichens    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Nature    5. Nature/Ecology    6. North America    7. Pictorial works    8. Plants - General    9. Science    10. Phycology, algae & lichens    11. Plant life: general    12. Reference works    13. Science / Botany   

Reviews (7)

Excellent Reading
I bought this book because the author was coming to the environmental center I volunteer for.It is a wonderful book and the woman who wrote it is so deserving of our respect and praise.To quote someone who says it all, Janisse Ray said"something I took for granted has come alive, because I have been given its story.After reading this book, I took a magnifying glass outside and pored over the tree trunks.I have seen Robin Kimmerer's miniature landscape for myself.Yet, this is so much more than a book about mosses.This is a Native American woman speaking.This is a mother's story.This is a science revealed through human psyche.Robin Kimmerer is a scientist who combines empiricism with all other forms of knowing.Hers is a spectacularly different view of the world and her voice needs to be heard."
Great way to get into mosses
I've never purchased one of those books Amazon suggests when you're buying other books.But I'm glad I bought this one.Kimmerer is a scientist, a poet, a mother, a Native American and all these strands are blended in this remarkable book about her passion:bryophytes.Each chapter is a story that not only introduces fascinating information about these tiny but ubiquitous plants, but makes the entry into their world easy for a non-bryologist, AND leads to deep reflection about life.I found myself reading the book slowly, savoring and reflecting on each chapter.I plan to read it again before the year is out.

Seeing green
I had originally picked up this book after reading a review in which the author was favorably compared to Annie Dillard's Pilgrim At Tinker Creek.The first of the essays 'The Standing Stones' defiantly had hints of Dillard in it but the rest of the book did not continue in that same vain (I can only assume that particular review only read the first few pages).If Dillard is the forest, Kimmerer is the tree (or rather the moss on the tree).
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Subjects:  1. Ecology    2. Kimmerer, Robin Wall    3. Mosses    4. Nature    5. Nature/Ecology    6. Plants - General   

Subjects:  1. British Isles    2. Classification    3. Identification    4. Life Sciences - Botany    5. Mosses    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Botany & plant sciences    9. Science / Botany   

Subjects:  1. Classification    2. Ecology    3. Evolution    4. Life Sciences - Botany    5. Life Sciences - Evolution    6. Plants - General    7. Pleurocarpous mosses    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Botany & plant sciences    11. Science / Evolution   

Subjects:  1. Identification    2. Lichens    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Nature    5. Northwest, Pacific    6. Pictorial works    7. Plants - General    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. Flowers    2. General    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Plants - General    5. Science    6. Science/Mathematics    7. LIVERWORTS    8. MOSSES    9. Nature / Flowers    10. Plant life: general   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Folklore    3. Lichens    4. Mosses    5. Plants   

Subjects:  1. Africa, East    2. Classification    3. Lichens    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Africa    6. Botany & plant sciences   

Reviews (1)

Too much reliance on microscopic detail
I bought this book to identify mosses found in Maine when on vacation from Europe. I had a magnifying glass at my disposal (10x, 20x) but found that the keys started asking questions about microscopic details very early on. This made it (too) difficult to get at least to the right family. Liverworts worked better than mosses. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bryophytes    2. Flowers    3. Identification    4. Life Sciences - Biology - General    5. Life Sciences - Botany    6. Liverworts    7. Mosses    8. Nature    9. Nature/Ecology    10. North America    11. Plants - General    12. Botany & plant sciences    13. Science / Biology   

Reviews (1)

The "Wholly" Book of BSCs
Compiled and written by various experts from many different academic fields, this book represents our sum-total knowledge of biological soil crusts (BSCs) to date (at least, as of 2003).It is logically-arranged into different sections and chapters, each written by an expert in that area.It is fully referenced throughout, and includes bibliographies at the end of each chapter.
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Subjects:  1. Agriculture - General    2. Ecology    3. Environmental Science    4. Flowers    5. Life Sciences - Botany    6. Life Sciences - Ecology    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Soil biology    10. Soil crusting    11. Soil ecology    12. Technology    13. Cyanobacteria    14. Ecological science, the Biosphere    15. Science / Ecology    16. Soil crusts    17. Soil science, sedimentology    18. algae    19. arid areas    20. land use    21. lichens    22. mosses    23. soil   

Reviews (1)

Mosses of the Gulf South
The illustrations are excellent.There are numerous keys, which I have not had much opportunity to use.This book is for the advanced student or very well prepared amateur. It is NOT a match the picture guide for the casual nature lover. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Plants - General    2. Nature    3. Nature / Field Guide Books    4. Botany & plant sciences    5. Mosses    6. Gulf States    7. Mosses (Musci)    8. Identification   

Reviews (3)

Another Beautiful Book from the Smithsonian Press!
Several books recently published by the Smithsonian Institution Press have been especially well produced. In an earlier review I noted the excellent "Dragonflies of the World," which is much more than a coffee table book. Similarly "Lichens" by William Purvis has illuminated a little known part of the biological world - the obviously composite "organisms." Lichens are a cooperative unit formed by fungus and an "alga" or a cyanobacterium. Some are easily separable into their component species, while others are almost single entities.
Excellent overview
This book provides a great introduction to the study of lichens.In concise text that assumes very little specialist knowledge, Purvis explains what lichens are and how they grow.He goes on to explain their role in ecosystems and many of the various uses that have been developed for lichens over the years.He delves into the use of lichens for biomonitoring at great length, and provides many examples of how lichens have been used to monitor or detect air pollution or metals contamination.The book includes color pictures, illustrations, and graphs on each page.At the end of the book, Purvis includes some suggested serious lichen research projects that even beginners could undertake. There is a glossary, an index, and list of books and Websites for further study.This book is a great place to get started in lichenology.It would also make a great science or ecology text for older homeschoolers.

Very attractive and informative
This is a marvelous introduction to lichens. The author is a lichenologist at The Natural History Museum in London and is enthusiastic about his subject. The book is a very manageable length-a little over 100 pages-and explains what a lichen is (a combination of two organisms: a fungus and a photosynthesizing partner, usually an algae), and other topics such as lichen evolution, the ecological role of lichens, lichens in forests, lichens in extreme environments, and biomonitoring. The author also includes a chapter on practical projects-collecting, monitoring, and photographing lichens-which motivated me to order a magnifying glass. One of the projects the author suggests is to visit churchyards to learn about lichens and their ecology. As he says, "The thing that makes churchyards so useful is the multitude of conveniently dated surfaces." Read more

Subjects:  1. Lichens    2. Life Sciences - Biology - Microbiology    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Nature    5. Nature/Ecology    6. Plants - General    7. Science    8. Phycology, algae & lichens   

Reviews (3)

Looks like a Junior High School science project
This book appears to have been slapped together with less than two weeks of work.I was constantly confused by discrepancies between the descriptions and the photographs.Lichens described as bright green, chartreuse, orange, red, etc., were all about the same dull shade of gray-brown in the pictures.This may be due to poor photography, poor reproduction, or the fact that the lichens pictured are old dessicated herbarium specimens rather than living lichens in their natural setting.

a handy backpack reference
Thislittle book of pretty pictures of lichens is slightly larger than a Reader's Digest but not quite as thick, so it will fit into your backback but not into your pocket.It tells you what you want to know withoutgetting too botanical and will add greatly to what you will see on yournext hike, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the oneafter ----

a handy backpack reference
Thislittle book of pretty pictures of lichens is slightly larger than a Reader's Digest but not quite as thick, so it will fit into your backback but not into your pocket.It tells you what you want to know withoutgetting too botanical and will add greatly to what you will see on yournext hike, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the oneafter ---- ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Identification    2. Lichens    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Nature    5. Pictorial works    6. Plants - General    7. Rocky Mountains Region    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Phycology, algae & lichens   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Juvenile literature    3. Mosses    4. Plants - General    5. Religion    6. Science   

Subjects:  1. Classification    2. General    3. Identification    4. Mosses (Musci)    5. Nature/Ecology    6. Plants - General    7. Pottiaceae    8. Science    9. Taxonomic Botany   

Reviews (1)

A Bryologist's Delight
It is with envy that we European botanists see the publication of bryological books in the United States. The two volumes about the moss flora of Mexico are a superb example of how well written bryological books can be. The Flora is beautifully illustrated, the keys work and the descriptions are excellent. Everybody only remotely interested in this group of plants will gladly welcome it as an addition to their collection. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Classification    2. Gardening/Plants    3. Identification    4. Mexico    5. Mosses    6. Mosses (Musci)   

Subjects:  1. Mosses (Musci)   

Subjects:  1. Life Sciences - Botany    2. Reference    3. Science    4. Mosses    5. Nomenclature