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Introduction
This field guide describes 1100 wildflowers and small flowering shrubs that occur in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont—the six New England states. Most of these plants are herbaceous, that is, they are species with conspicuous flowers whose stems die back in winter. Others are small, woody-stemmed shrubs, primarily those that grow no more than 3 feet in height and also have conspicuous flowers. Trees and large shrubs are not included; neither are grasses and grasslike plants, nor nonflowering plants such as ferns, horsetails, and club-mosses.
The selected plants represent a high proportion of the region’s flora that we think of as “wildflowers.” Most grow in natural habitats—in the forests, meadows, wetlands, hills, mountains, valleys, and coastlines throughout the region. Others have found favored niches along roadsides, railway beds, and in pavement cracks. Many of them are common in the region and some are rare. A number of species are distributed throughout New England, while others are found only within a small area of a single state. Some grow only in particular conditions, such as an alpine meadow or sphagnum bog, while others flourish in a wide variety of habitats. Most of these wildflowers occur in other parts of the northeastern United States and in southeastern Canada as well as in New England. Only a few species are entirely limited to New England in their range.
Plants that are native to New England and plants that are nonnative to the region are described. The common thread is that all of them grow in self-sustaining populations independent of human cultivation. A native species is one that has continuously grown in the northeastern landscape since before the time of European colonization. A nonnative or introduced plant has been brought here, accidentally or deliberately, from outside the region, and now grows here in natural conditions. Today, approximately two-thirds of the species growing in natural conditions in New England are native, and one-third of them are nonnative, introduced species.
The book is intended to be a handy reference to wildflower identification in the field. It is designed for beginners as well as experienced naturalists, indeed for anyone who is curious about exploring the beauty and variety of wildflowers in the natural landscape. The primary goal is to provide the reader with a reliable, nontechnical means of correctly identifying the wildflowers that he or she encounters in New England.
To this end, the book uses a key system based on flower and leaf characteristics. By following the key, which starts with flower color, the reader will be able to track down the plant that he or she is observing in the wild to a group of species that share its flower and leaf features. Then, by reading the individual species descriptions and looking at the accompanying images of that similar-looking group of plants, the reader will be able to find the one that matches the plant that he or she is observing.
