Wildflowers & Grasses of Virginia's Coastal Plain

About this book

From articles written and published by the first author in newspapers over the past 7 years a book is being created about Virginias Coastal Plain wildflowers and grasses. The second author Dr. Gustavus Hall Professor Emeritus College of William and Mary re-wrote portions of the text to ensure botanical accuracy. Louise Menges Editor maintained the photo inventory selected appropriate images for each page and designed the layout of each page. Sponsored by the John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society many plants included are native to the Coastal Plain of Virginia but some are introduced from other areas in the U.S. and from other countries. Included are non-woody plants often seen along roadsides in meadows gardens and lawns. Many are weedy with small flowers not usually seen in field guides. Also included are grasses commonly seen in Virginias Coastal Plain. The plants included here occur in most counties of the Coastal Plain of Virginia and some may be found throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains from Cape Cod to Mexico. Originally the book was conceived to include only those plants native to the Coastal Plain. However in decades of field work the authors have observed very conspicuous non-native (introduced) plants displacing natives in many locations. These familiar introduced plants are in the book to help users distinguish desirable native plants from unwanted species. The plants are arranged in the book by flower color (white yellow orange red pink blue violet green brown) indicated by a colored rectangle on the upper edge of the page. The grasses and grass-like plants (tan rectangle) are in the last section of the book. Within each color group the plants are arranged alphabetically by families. Photographs on each page show the most prominent feature of each plant usually the flower. Text follows the photographs with user-friendly descriptions of the plants characteristics habitat range and growing conditions and interesting facts about uses in folk medicine by the Native Americans and origins of the plants names. All photographs were contributed by members of local chapters of the Virginia Native Plant Society: Ellis Squires from the Northern Neck Chapter; and from the local John Clayton Chapter Teta Kain Seig Kopinitz Louise Menges Kathi Mestayer Phillip Merritt and Jan Newton; and Felice Bond from the Historic Rivers Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists. Dr. Donna Ware retired Herbarium Curator College of William and Mary has written the Preface; the book was peer-reviewed by Dr. John Hayden Botanist University of Richmond; and Bland Crowder Editor of Flora of Virginia has done the copy editing.