New Flora of Vermont

Book excerpt: Vermont is a small and, by any standard, a well-botanized state---beginning with a list of Vermont's trees and other economic plants in 1795, continuing through four editions of the Flora of Vermont, up to the summary Check List of Vermont Plants by the Vermont Botanical Club in 1973. Why the New Flora of Vermont? So many advances in the last 40 years warrant striking out anew: taxonomic advances have resulted from the wave of molecular data since the discovery of DNA and the powerful analytical technique of cladistics, there has been an increase in floristic knowledge of Vermont's local flora in the intervening decades; and an emphasis on potential threats to indigenous flora, e.g., by invasive species, has added several new items. In this up-to-date volume, Art Gilman strikes out anew, following recent advances and current thinking, while contributing to Vermont's long and significant botanical heritage.