Weeds of the South

This title offers quick help for identifying and managing problem plants. Weeds threaten the safe, efficient, and sustainable production of food, feed, fiber, and biofuel throughout the world. Featuring more than fifteen hundred full-color photographs, this handy guide provides essential information on four hundred of the most troublesome weedy and invasive plants found in the southern United States. Drawing on the expertise of more than forty weed scientists and botanists, the guide identifies each plant at various stages of its life and offers useful details about its origin, habitat, morphology, biology, distribution, and toxic properties. The book also includes illustrations of the most common characteristics of plants and the terms used to describe them, a key to plant families, a glossary of frequently used terms, a bibliography, and indexes of scientific and common plant names. Each species account includes: Up to four full-color photographs showing seed, seedling, plant, flower, and other unique plant features; Distribution map; For grasses, a line drawing of the collar (where the leaf joins the stem), an important identifying characteristic; Scientific names, common names, and local synonyms of common names; Vegetative characteristics for seedlings and leaves; and special identifying characteristics, reproductive characteristics, and toxic properties. The States covered (species distribution maps also show occurrences across the United States and Canada) include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and, West Virginia.

Weeds of the South is quite honestly the best publication of its type that I have seen. It brings together a superb combination of information on plant history, preferred habitat, North American distribution, and identification characteristics that is par excellence. The quality of the photographs alone makes this book well worth owning, and the key has been specifically created for those plants in this publication, making it well-suited for anyone in the southeastern U.S. - David Shaw, President of the Weed Science Society of America

Charles T. Bryson (left) is a research botanist for the United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) at the Southern Weed Science Research Unit in Stoneville, Mississippi. Michael S. DeFelice (right) is a senior manager at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.