"Campbell & Lynne Loughmiller, Foreword by Lady Bird Johnson, revised by Damon Waitt This is the second in the series of Texas Field Guides by UT Press. The information is great, but the quality of the pictures didn't survive the remake. What used to be big, bright photos that took up 1/3 of a 5 x 8 sheet, are reduced to postage-stamped photos in some cases. So, if you rely on photos for identification, I'd stick with, or look at Wildflowers of Texas by Ajilvsgi. However, if you are truly interested in studying wildflowers, especially if you travel outside of Texas, this book is a must for your library. The reason, it presents the wildflowers by family. Once you learn to identify families of plants, you are more than halfway through the process of naming it! Each new family is introduced with the characteristics of that family. Unlike Ajilvsgi's book, some species have more than one picture per plant, to show both the flower and the entire plant (even if the pictures are almost too small to do any good!). Not only is the foreword written by Lady Bird Johnson, an inspiring writer as well as a wonderful person, the publisher donates a portion of each sale to her Wildflower Center. Texas Wildflowers provides clear and concise descriptions for more than 300 wildflowers (including prevalent and some rare and unusual plants of startling beauty).
Flexicover, 4.5 x 7.25 in., 304 pp., 1 map, 13 figures, 407 color photos.
From the Publisher (and Damon Waitt): "Welcome to the revised edition of Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide, by Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller. A lot can change in 22 years, not the least of which are the names we associate with the wildflowers in the first edition—but we will come to that shortly.
Since the Loughmillers' guide was first published in 1984, more than 155,000 copies of Texas Wildflowers have been sold, placing it among the top three bestsellers for the University of Texas Press. Those who subscribe to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy might question the reasons for a new edition, especially one that departs so radically in appearance from the first. Let's start by judging the book by its cover, literally. The cover stock is made of a much more durable material to ensure longer life in the field, and the book is a bit narrower, to facilitate carrying it in a pack or pocket. These physical changes are all part of the University of Texas Press plan to develop a complete series of natural history field guides, covering everything that creeps, crawls, runs, swims, flies, or grows in our fair state. Texas Wildflowers is the second book published in this University of Texas Press natural history series.
Within the pages of this edition, great care was taken to preserve the spirit of the original text, including the original foreword written by Lady Bird Johnson. In it, she refers to the National Wildflower Research Center founded in 1982.... In 1995, the National Wildflower Research Center moved to a 43-acre site off Loop 1 (MoPac) in south Austin. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to honor the center's co-founder and chairperson. Today, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's 279-acre site serves as a model native plant botanic garden with programs that protect, conserve, and restore our natural plant heritage. It is a must-see if you are ever in the Austin area.....
Although, as Campbell Loughmiller noted in his introduction to the first edition, "it is not necessary to know the name of a flower in order to appreciate it," it is important to keep up to date and to be consistent in the application of scientific names. For example, in the first edition several plant families are referred to by their traditional family names (Umbelliferae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Leguminosae, and Labiatae). Under a rule of botanical nomenclature called nomina conservanda (conservation of names), tradition allows these family names to be used in place of their modern equivalents (Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, and Lamiaceae). In this edition, we opted to use the standardized family names (those ending in -aceae). Since the field guide is arranged alphabetically by plant family, that simple change had a cascading effect on the second edition's organization.
The most significant change in the second edition is the application of scientific names to plants. The goal of plant taxonomy is to develop a uniform, practical, and stable system of nomenclature (applying names to plants). These rules are set forth in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, and they facilitate international communication and sharing of information about plants. Though names can change if they are found to violate the code, the most significant source of name changes is a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships among plant species. Since modern-day classification is organized to reflect these relationships, new evidence, such as that from molecular genetic studies, can lead to changes in nomenclature.
Given the length of time between the first and second editions, 22 years, it is not surprising that some 20 percent (1 in 5) of the species have changed names. To help users of the field guide navigate these nomenclatural changes, taxonomic synonyms are published in parentheses immediately following the currently accepted names.... "
