Many
useful identification guides have been published for Texas -- most of those listed below include color
photographs. These are great if you
have a plant in hand and want to flip through the book to find a close
comparison. They also are useful for
learning –– “virtual field trips” through the pages, repeat as often as
desired.
The
huge expanse of Texas includes a wide range of climate and habitat, and more
than 6000 species of plants are known to grow outside of cultivation in the
state. Most of the books listed here
concentrate on a single geographic portion of the state, so if you’re
interested in the whole state, and it’s useful to have a selection of books for
a wider representation of species. Of
course, only a relatively small portion of the species are commonly seen –– in
town, in parks, along roadsides, in thickets and “weedy” places –– thus books
emphasizing these species probably are best to have for beginners.
Most
of the books listed here are still in print, or if not, they still can be found
for sale –– check internet sources.
Others, also, have been published, but those here are the best.
Several other online resources give references useful for
identification and for learning about the Texas flora:
“Texas Flora” Texas A&M reference listing
“Texas
Literature” BRIT Study and
identification of plants
“Texas
Flora” UT-Austin Plant
Resources Center, miscellaneous topics
Ajilvsgi,
G. 1979. Wild Flowers of the Big Thicket, East
Texas, and Western Louisiana.
Texas A&M Univ. Press, College Station.
Ajilvsgi,
G. 1984. Wildflowers of Texas. Shearer Publishing, Fredricksburg, Texas.
Correll,
D.S. 1956. Ferns and Fern Allies of Texas. Texas Research Foundation, Renner, Texas.
Enquist,
M. 1987. Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country. Lone Star Botanical, Austin, Texas.
Ham,
H. and M. Bruce. 1984. South Texas Wildflowers. Conner Museum, Texas A&I Univ.,
Kingsville.
Haukos,
D.A. and L.M. Smith. 1997. Common Flora of the Playa Lakes. Texas Tech
Univ. Press, Lubbock.
Kirkpatrick,
Z.M. 1992. Wildflowers of the Western Plains: A
Field Guide. Univ. of Texas
Press, Austin.
Liggio, J.
and A.O. Liggio. 1999. Wild
Orchids of Texas. Texas Tech Univ. Press, Lubbock.
Loughmiller,
C. and L. Loughmiller. 2006. Texas Wildflowers:
A Field Guide (revised and updated by D. Waitt). Univ. of Texas Press, Austin. [Updates the 1984 edition]
Morey,
R. 2008. Little Big Bend: Common, Uncommon, and
Rare Plants of Big Bend National Park. Texas Tech Univ. Press, Lubbock.
Niehaus,
T.F. 1984. A Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas
Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin,
Boston, Mass.
Nieland,
L.J. and W.F. Finley. 2009. Lone Star
Wildflowers: A Guide to Texas Flowering Plants. Texas Tech Univ. Press, Lubbock.
Poole, J.M., W.R Carr, D.M. Price, and J.R.
Singhurst. 2008. Rare Plants of
Texas: A Field Guide. Texas
A&M Univ. Press, College Station.
Richardson,
A. 1995. Plants of the Rio Grande Delta. Univ. of Texas Press,
Austin. [Updates
Richardson’s earlier [1990] “Plants of Southernmost
Texas”]
Richardson,
A. 2002. Wildflowers and Other Plants of Texas
Beaches and Islands. Univ. of Texas
Press, Austin.
Rose, F.L.
and R.W. Strandtmann. 1986. Wildflowers of the
Llano Estacado. Taylor
Publishing Co., Dallas, Texas.
Tull,
D. 1991. A Field Guide to Wildflowers, Trees
& Shrubs of Texas. Gulf
Publishing Co., Houston, Texas.
Tveten,
J.L. and G.A. Tveten. 1993. Wildflowers
of Houston and Southeast Texas. Univ. of
Texas Press, Austin.
Warnock,
B.H. 1970. Wildflowers of the Big Bend Country
Texas. Sul Ross State Univ.
Press, Alpine, Texas.
Warnock,
B.H. 1974. Wildflowers of the Guadalupe Mountains
and the Sand Dune Country, Texas.
Sul Ross State Univ. Press, Alpine, Texas.
Warnock,
B.H. 1977. Wildflowers of the Davis Mountains and
Marathon Basin, Texas. Sul Ross
State Univ. Press, Alpine, Texas.
Hart,
C.R., B. Rector, C.W. Hanselka, R.K. Lyons, and A. McGinty. 2008.
Brush Weeds of Texas Rangelands. Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas
A&M Univ. System. Distributed by Texas
A&M Univ. Press, College Station.
Coffey,
C.R. and R. Stevens. 2004. Grasses of Southern
Oklahoma and North Texas: A Pictorial Guide. S.R. Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma.
Gould,
F.W. 1975. The Grasses of Texas. Texas A&M
Univ. Press, College Station.
Hatch,
S.L., J.L. Schuster, and D.L. Drawe. 1999. Grasses of the
Texas Gulf Prairies and Marshes. Texas A&M Univ. Press, College
Station.
Loflin, B.
and S. Loflin. 2006. Grasses of the Texas
Hill Country: A Field Guide. Texas A&M Univ. Press, College
Station.
Powell,
A.M. 1994. Grasses
of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Cox, P.W.
and P. Leslie. 1991. Texas Trees. Corona Publishing Co., San Antonio, Texas.
Everitt,
J.H. and D.L. Drawe. 1993. Trees, Shrubs &
Cacti of South Texas. Texas Tech
Univ. Press, Lubbock, Texas.
Powell,
A.M. 1998. Trees and Shrubs of the Trans-Pecos and
Adjacent Areas. Univ. of Texas
Press, Austin.
Powell,
A.M., J.F. Weedin, and S.A. Powell.
2008. Cacti
of Texas: A Field Guide. Texas
Tech Univ. Press, Lubbock.
Simpson,
B.J. 1988. A Field Guide to Texas Trees. Texas Monthly Press, Austin.
Stahl, C.
and R. McElvaney. 2005. Trees of Texas: An
Easy Guide to Leaf Identification.
Texas A&M Univ. Press, College Station.
Stevens,
R. and C. Coffey. 2005[?]. Trees, Shrubs and Woody
Vines [Southern Oklahoma and North Texas]:
A Pictorial Guide.
S.R. Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma.
Weniger, D.
1984. A
Field Guide to the Cactus of
Texas and Neighboring States. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Wrede,
J. 2005. Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill
Country: A Field Guide.
Texas A&M Univ. Press, College Station.
Correll,
D.S. and M.C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the
Vascular Plants of Texas. Texas
Research Foundation, Renner.
Diggs,
G.M., B.L. Lipscomb, and R.J. O’Kennon.
1999. Shinners & Mahler’s Flora of North Central Texas. Botanical Research Inst. of Texas, Fort
Worth.
Diggs, G.M., B.L. Lipscomb, M.D. Reed, and R.J.
O'Kennon. 2006. Illustrated flora of
east Texas. Vol. 1. Botanical
Research Inst. of Texas, Fort Worth.
Turner,
B.L. 1959. The Legumes of Texas. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Turner, B.L., H. Nichols, G. Denny, and O. Doron.
2003. Atlas of the Vascular Plants of
Texas. Vol. 1 (dicots), Vol. 2
(ferns, gymnosperms, monocots). Botanical
Research Inst. of Texas, Fort Worth.
Garrett,
J.H. 1996. Howard Garrett's plants for Texas. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Garrett,
J.H. 1998. Plants of the Metroplex
(rev.). Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Garrett, J.H. 2008. Plants for Houston and the Gulf Coast. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
Arnold, Michael A.
2008. Landscape Plants for
Texas and Environs (ed. 3). Stipes Publishing L.L.C.,
Champaign, Illinois.
Brown,
C.A. 1972. Wildflowers of Louisiana
and Adjacent States.
Louisiana State Univ. Press, Baton
Rouge.
Bryson,
C. and M.S. Defelice. 2009. Weeds
of the South.
Univ. of Georgia Press,
Athens.
Hemmerly,
T.E. 2002. Ozark Wildflowers. Univ. of
Georgia Press, Athens.
Hunter,
C.G. 1984. Wildflowers of Arkansas. The Ozark Society Foundation, Little Rock,
Arkansas.
Niehaus, T.F., R.T. Peterson, V. Savage, and
C.L. Ripper. 1998. Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas
Wildflowers. Peterson Field Guides
Smith, A.I. 1979. A Guide to Wildflowers of the
Mid-South West Tennessee into Central Arkansas and South Through Alabama and
into East Texas. Memphis State Univ. Press, Memphis, TN.
Guy Nesom
last update: 19 Mar 2010