GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Want to know what that weird palm is growing in your backyard? How about that scraggy tree? The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has a new book coming out that will help: “Trees: North and Central Florida,” a photographic field guide of 140 native, introduced and invasive trees and palms in North and Central Florida.
Andrew Koeser , a co-author and assistant professor of urban tree and landscape management at UF’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, said he wrote the book as an ID guide for people to be able to take with them into the field.
“I want this to be a book where people can just take it out with them. Any tree they see in North and Central Florida, there’s a high probability that it will be in that book,” Koeser said. “We tried to get the most common trees in North and Central Florida.”
The book is now available at the UF/IFAS Extension bookstore, 1374 Sabal Palm Drive, on the UF campus, and online at http://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu/. It sells for $24.95, but there are select discounts for UF faculty and staff, resellers and bulk buyers.
Other co-authors are Melissa Friedman, a science and Extension writer and Gitta Hasing, a senior biological scientist, both at the Gulf Coast REC; and Robert Irving, an urban forester for the city of Tampa. UF’s Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology funded the project.
The book is pocket-sized and composed of large, clear, colorful pictures that can be used for quick identification. It is arranged by leaf type and contains one page of short text describing a tree, and then one page with photos to identify that tree year-round, when it was flowering and fruiting. Also included are special notes about natural history, commercial and cultural uses, and the Florida hardiness zones.
The book will be available for Android and Apple IOS, with the same content but will also include dichotomous keys and uncropped pictures.
The authors are also working on a South Florida book for a December release.
For more information about the book, visit http://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu/ or call 352-392-1764 or 800-226-1764.
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By Rachel LaVigna, 352-294-3302, rlavigna@ifas.ufl.edu
Source: Andrew Koeser, 813-633-4150, akoeser@ufl.edu
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