A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence. It is generally designed to be brought into the "field" or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects. Field guides are often designed to help users distinguish animals and plants that may be similar in appearance but are not necessarily closely related.
Mary Morris Vaux Walcott was an American artist and naturalist known for her watercolor paintings of wildflowers. She has been called the "Audubon of Botany."
Merritt Lyndon Fernald was an American botanist. He was a respected scholar of the taxonomy and phytogeography of the vascular plant flora of temperate eastern North America. During his career, Fernald published more than 850 scientific papers and wrote and edited the seventh and eighth editions of Gray's Manual of Botany. Fernald coauthored the book Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America in 1919–1920 with Alfred Kinsey, which was published in 1943.
Frances Theodora Parsons, who initially published as Mrs. William Starr Dana, was an American naturalist and author active in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She wrote a number of books, including a popular guide to American wildflowers.
George Lincoln Goodale was an American botanist and the first director of Harvard’s Botanical Museum. It was he who commissioned the making of the University's legendary Glass Flowers collection.
Ostrya virginiana, the American hophornbeam, is a species of Ostrya native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Manitoba and eastern Wyoming, southeast to northern Florida and southwest to eastern Texas. Populations from Mexico and Central America are also regarded as the same species, although some authors prefer to separate them as a distinct species, Ostrya guatemalensis. Other names include eastern hophornbeam, hardhack, ironwood, and leverwood.
Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical description in books, magazines, and other media or sold as a work of art. Often composed by a botanical illustrator in consultation with a scientific author, their creation requires an understanding of plant morphology and access to specimens and references.
Wilhelm Heinrich Prestele was a botanical artist known for his lithographs and watercolor work commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture.
James Andrews (1801–1876) was an English draughtsman, botanical painter and illustrator noted for his accomplished illustrations. He also taught flower-painting to young ladies. He created the illustrations for the famous nature writer Sarah Bowdich Lee's 1854 book Trees, Plants, and Flowers: Their Beauties, Uses, and Influences.
Arthur Stanley Pease was a professor of Classics, a respected amateur botanist, and the tenth president of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Pease was once described by his fellow faculty members as an "indefatigable pedestrian, and New Englander to the core."
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton was an American botanist, bryologist, and educator. She and her husband, Nathaniel Lord Britton played a significant role in the fundraising and creation of the New York Botanical Garden. She was a co-founder of the predecessor to the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. She was an activist for protection of wildflowers, inspiring local chapter activities and the passage of legislation. Elizabeth Britton made major contributions to the literature of mosses, publishing 170 papers in that field.
Malaxis bayardii, or Bayard's adder's-mouth orchid, is a species of orchid native to northeastern North America. It is found from Massachusetts to North Carolina, with isolated populations in Ohio and Nova Scotia. There are historical reports of the plant formerly growing in Vermont and New Jersey, but it seems to have been extirpated in those two states It grows in dry, open woods and pine barrens at elevations of less than 600 m.
Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. Her work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection, and she has been called the best of the early USDA artists. She rose to lead the USDA staff artists, and she became the most prolific of the group, contributing one-fifth of the 7500 paintings in the Pomological Watercolor Collection.
Elian Emily Collins was an English botanist, naturalist and an early collector of plant specimens in Thailand. She discovered several plant species new to science and had numerous species named after her.
Caroline Priscilla Bingham was an American botanist who was one of the earliest American women to publish scientific papers on botany. She was an influential collector of botanical specimens discovering a new genus and several new species. As a result of her discoveries Bingham had a genus and several algae species named in her honor.
Marion Satterlee was an American botanical artist who in 1893 illustrated the first field guide to North American wildflowers.
Mary Elizabeth Parsons was the author of an early comprehensive guide to California wildflowers.
Bessie Niemeyer Marshall was an American botanical illustrator known for her watercolor paintings of the wildflowers of Lee Memorial Park. Her artwork documented the variety of plant species being preserved in Lee Memorial Park, a Works Progress Administration-funded wildflower and bird sanctuary in Petersburg, Virginia.
Minna Fernald (1860–1954) was an American botanical artist. Her subjects were mainly landscapes and wildflowers. She received awards for her art and also a medal for work with the Red Cross during World War 1.
Anna Frances Walker (1830–1913) was an early Australian botanical collector and plant illustrator.
