France Royer

Plant structures -- Identification of weed species -- Key to trees and shrubs -- Key to vines and climbing plants -- Key to herbaceous land plants -- Key to aquatic plants -- Key to grasses and grasslike plants -- Family and species descriptions.
“What is a weed,” opined Emerson, “but a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered?” While that may be a worthy notion in theory, these plants of undiscovered virtue cause endless hours of toil for backyard gardeners. Wherever they take root, weeds compete for resources, and most often win. They also wreak havoc on industry—from agriculture to golf courses to civic landscape projects, vast amounts of money are spent to eradicate these virile and versatile invaders. With so much at stake, reliable information on weeds and their characteristics is crucial. Richard Dickinson and France Royer shed light on this complex world with Weeds of North America, the essential reference for all who wish to understand the science of the all-powerful weed.… (altro)

The author probably did not intend this as a field guide to edible wild plants, but with its many photos it works very well in that role. It has useful information about distinguishing similar plants, which plants are native and which introduced, seed size (native Chenopodium spp have seeds twice as large as introduced European lambsquarters Chenopodium album -- which datum caused me to reflect whether this is cause, or effect, of the First Nations using them as a grain before the introduction of maize). The weed control information is valuable too: even if you're controlling weeds by pulling, this book will tell you which have a tap root, which will regenerate from unpulled runners, which have to be uprooted before setting seed.… (altro)