Author’s Notes
Amazon Basin, Black Forest, Caribbean Islands, Sea of Galilee, Point Pelee,
Okefenokee Swamp, Mount Sinai, Rio Grande, County Limerick, and Appalachian
Mountains—all these names and the special places they designate
are among those that fascinated and intrigued me as a youngster. But the
word Appalachian especially captured my fancy, even though those mountains
were, for me, the most local of the world’s wonders. Later, I learned
that these mountains, though not nearly the highest, are among the oldest,
the most beautiful, and the most visited in the world. I also became aware of
their importance in the history of the New World; no other physical feature
played a larger role in the history of North America than did the Appalachians.
Certainly, these ancient and complex mountains with their diverse
biota should be considered national and international treasures.
As a botanist and ecologist, | am concerned with the need to study and
protect not only the biological diversity of the Appalachians but also that of
other regions. Increasing human population pressures, industrialization,
and the need for forest and mining resources put the world’s flora and fauna
at risk. Alabama native, now Harvard University biologist, Edward O. Wilson,
in his book The Diversity of Life, said, “The folly our descendants will
least forgive us is mass extinction of species.” Vice President Al Gore (who
also has Appalachian roots), in his landmark book Earth in the Balance,
warns of the global ecological problems that must be solved in order for our
grandchildren to inherit a livable and sustainable world. Fortunately, others,
too, are sounding the call for the regional, national, and international concern
and action necessary to enter the twenty-first century without major
environmental catastrophes.
“Reading the landscape” was a recognizable skill long before modern conservationists
began using the term “landscape ecology.” Both mean the same
thing: the ability to interpret nature not only in terms of discrete fragments,
like forests, streams, and meadows, but also as a whole composed of dynamic
units with indefinite boundaries interfacing, blending, and constantly
affecting each other.
AW THORS NOW ES
Unfortunately, modern education does not do a good job of helping
people read the landscape. Even college biology majors are trained to think
mainly in terms of blood and guts; cells, tissues, and organs; or molecules,
atoms, and electrons. Too seldom are field studies required. Reed F. Noss, in
a 1996 editorial in the journal Conservation Biology, laments the loss of fieldoriented
scientists. Even ecology, a science spawned by natural history, is being
practiced increasingly by keyboard jockeys who “model” hypothetical
ecosystems rather than experiencing them firsthand.
Of course, careers in the biological sciences require a firm grasp of animal
architecture and a sound underpinning in organic chemistry and biochemistry,
computers are indispensable for analyzing and storing data. But all
persons, in order to be good citizens of planet Earth, should have a basic
knowledge of their local natural areas and be able to relate them to the larger
ecological picture, to read the landscape and respond appropriately to it.
As a result of the work of numerous scholars over almost three centuries,
many manuals are available to help professional botanists read the landscape
and, more particularly, identify Appalachian plants. For the less well trained,
illustrated field guides are useful within certain mountain habitats (e.g.,
mountain timberlines), and local guides treat areas such as New England or
particular states or provinces. But no single illustrated publication serves as
a field guide to flowering plants throughout the Appalachians; thus, the
justification for this volume.
This book is intended to be useful in helping you view wildflowers in the
context of their environment, that is, to read their landscape. It attempts to
go well beyond a simple identification of mountain plants; it should also be
useful for learning about plant habitats, about factors that determine the distribution
of plants, and about the many ways that plants are useful to humans.
Such an appreciation should lead to environmental awareness, especially
of the Appalachians and their ecology, but by extension to the entire
global landscape, or biosphere, of which we are a part.
Appalachian wildflowers an ecological guide to flowering Plants From Quebec to Georgia By Thomas Hemmerly
