Clemson University botanist offers new wildflower, naturalist guide

Published: April 20, 2011

image by: UNC Press

CLEMSON, S.C. — For anyone who likes to walk in the woods, Clemson University botany professor Timothy P. Spira’s new wildflower book is a worthy take-along. More than a plant identification guide, “Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont: A Naturalist's Guide to the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia” explores the relationship plants have with their ecological communities.

Spira will speak about his work and sign books at the South Carolina Botanical Garden Hayden Conference Center from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26. He also will speak to the Foothills Group of the Sierra Club at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, in the Unitarian Fellowship Hall in Clemson. Both events are free and open to the public.

Spira and his publisher, the University of North Carolina Press, took a fresh approach in designing the guide. UNC Press notes, “Rather than organizing plants, including trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants by flower color or family characteristics, as is done in most guidebooks, botanist Tim Spira takes a holistic, ecological approach that enables the reader to identify and learn about plants in their natural communities. This approach, says Spira, better reflects the natural world, as plants, like other organisms, don't live in isolation; they coexist and interact in myriad ways.”

Mindful that many people first want to identify plants, Spira — an expert photographer — has color photos up front to preview 340 highlighted plants found in the 21 major plant communities he describes.

The unique value of this book and the author’s passion for ecology comes to light in later sections profiling natural communities, ranging from the spruce-fir forest atop the mountains to the river bluff forest of the foothills, and the fascinating information about the ecology and natural history of the featured plants. The book also includes a glossary, illustrations of plant structures and descriptions of places to visit. 

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