Volume one of the Illustrated Flora of East Texas is the first fully illustrated flora for East Texas, a species rich area that contains more than two-thirds of all the plant species known for Texas. The book covers all the native and naturalized ferns and similar plants, gymnosperms, and monocotyledons known to occur in East Texas, a total of 1,060 species.
It is the only up-to-date comprehensive guide to these groups of plants of this economically important region, which is approximately the size of Georgia. It presents information on the plant life of the area to meet the needs of students, teachers, wildflower enthusiasts, gardeners, ranchers, farmers, naturalists, conservationists, environmental consultants, researchers, and the general public.
Of particular note for nonbotanists are the illustrations and other visual materials. Line drawing illustrations are provided for all species, county distribution maps for almost all species, and a color section with nearly 200 photographs. It is the most fully illustrated flora for any area of the southeastern United States. The inviting layout, vegetation maps, and extensive introductory materials on the vegetation, geology, soils, climate, presettlement and early settlement conditions, and Texas botanical history make the book useful to a wide audience. Also of general interest are a number of appendices on topics such as botanically related internet addresses, conservation organizations, endemic species, nomenclature, species of conservation concern, suggested native ornamentals, and commercially important timber trees. The taxonomic treatments include family and generic synopses, keys and descriptions, derivations of scientific names, characters helpful in family recognition in the field, notes on toxic/poisonous and useful plants, and references to supporting literature. There is a literature cited section with over 4,000 references.