BOT 4303C - Plant Kingdom

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"This text provides students with a summary of the interactions between humans and plants from early history to the present. Enough general botany is provided to orient readers to parts of the plants discussed and their mechanisms of function. Unlike other texts on economic botany, this book discusses molecular methods in the study and alteration of crop plants. Drawings and explanations illustrate how molecular methods are being employed to discover relationships between agricultural crops and their wild relatives. Similarly, the steps involved in plant genetic engineering are illustrated and explained. By relating aspects of morphology and evolution to plants that are familiar to students, concepts should be easy for students to remember."

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"Plants Of The Gods is a comprehensive reference work on psychoactive botanicals. It provides a definition of plant hallucinogens and information on phytochemical research on sacred plants, geography of usage and botanical range, the chemical structures of these substances and the use of hallucinogens in medicine. The plant species discussed include the Amanita (Fly Agaric) mushroom, Atropa (Deadly Nightshade), Yellow and Black Henbane, Mandrake, Cannabis Ergot, Datura, Iboga, Yopo beans, Ayahuasca, Yage, Brugmansia, Peyote, the San Pedro cactus, the Morning Glory plus what the authors term "the little flowers of the gods" which include the various types of Psilocybe mushroom. This valuable reference work is an informative and detailed guide to entheogenic plants from around the globe; it includes a bibliography and index. The text is enhanced by photographs, illustrations and paintings. There's a section that lists every plant's common & botanical name, historical ethnography, context and purpose of usage, preparation and its chemical composition and effects."

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"Wunderlin has accomplished a major feat, writing a guide where the flora of the state is so diverse. . . . An original and highly significant contribution."--Michael O. Moore, University of Georgia This is the first comprehensive identification manual of the highly diverse flora of Florida, and it will serve as the definitive guide to Florida's vascular plants for years to come.  With more than 4,000 kinds of native and nonnative ferns and fern allies, nonflowering seed plants, and flowering seed plants that reproduce outside of cultivation, Florida has the third largest plant diversity of any state in the nation. Some of its plant species are found nowhere else in the world; many of these are endangered. Because of the state's mild climate, many nonnative species--including major pest species--readily become naturalized, contributing nearly one-third of the species of known flora.  Wunderlin provides a means to identify these plants through a series of taxonomic keys to family, genus, and species. He gives the up-to-date accepted scientific name of each species, the major nomenclatural synonyms, many common names, the general habitat preference, and, for plants not native to Florida, the region of nativity. Long awaited by biologists, conservationists, gardeners, educators, and environmental consultants, Wunderlin's guide provides for the first time in a single volume a means to identify the abundant and diverse flora of the Sunshine State. Richard P. Wunderlin, professor of biology at the University of South Florida, is the author of Guide to the Vascular Plants of Central Florida (UPF, 1982) and Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants CD-ROM.