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John checks out some limestone pavement,
looking for Dryopteris submontana
Image courtesy of J. Poland |
When the first edition of the Vegetative
Key to the British Flora was published a decade ago, it quickly became a
botanical best-seller, was awarded the BSBI/ Wild Flower Society Presidents’
Award and revolutionised the way we identify plants.
No longer did
botanists have to wait for the few weeks or months of the year when we’d see
the flowers and/ or fruits which every other ID book asked us to look at.
Suddenly
we had a much bigger window of opportunity in which to try and identify plants
– if there were leaves and/ or stems, we could at least attempt an ID.
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John (on right) chairing a meeting of
BSBI's Publications Committee
Image: L. Marsh |
Authors John Poland and Eric Clement have now produced a
second edition of the Vegetative Key to the British Flora and it’s due to be
published this autumn.
I caught up with John Poland (who is also Chair of BSBI’s Publications Committee) to find
out more:
LM: So John, ten years on from the first “Veg Key”, as it’s
known to its many friends, what made you and Eric decide to do a second
edition?
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A rare photo of the legendary Eric Clement
(he prefers to stay out of the spotlight!)
with John in the background
Image courtesy of J. Poland |
JP: The original was a good first attempt! But there is
always so much more to learn; many diagnostic characters were missed,
overlooked or the potential of them wasn’t fully realised until too late.
This second
edition hopes to correct this by evolving a more definitive ID guide based on ten
years’ worth of collective (and constructive) criticism from botanists who’ve
been using the book. Mind you, there’s always room for improvement!
LM: So for anybody who bought the first edition and wonders
why they should fork out for a second…
JP: Well, most importantly, every key has been revised to
make ID easier and more accurate. We’ve added in more taxa including some hybrids
such as the commonly occurring willows Salix spp. that adorn planting schemes
everywhere.
New natives such as the Scarce Tufted-sedge Carex cespitosa found
in Hertfordshire have been included - always exciting in the hope that shy-flowering
colonies will be found elsewhere.
Neophytes are hitching a ride all the time
and hortal plants jumping over the garden wall! So it’s important we include
anything a recorder is likely to encounter.
Also, everyone likes a bargain - this is an
inflation-busting book! Since work first started on the Vegetative Key, we’ve almost
covered the distance to the moon, using every mode of transport from hovercraft
to helicopters, in a quest to critically examine plants. We think it offers good
value for money!
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Dinner with John and he's still botanising...
Image: L. Marsh |
Anyway, what about the nomenclature? The
first edition used Stace 2nd ed. (1997) names because it came out just before
Stace 3rd ed. (2010) was published.
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Kim & Vanessa using the Veg Key
Image: L. Marsh |
JP: We’ve brought scientific names right up to date in line with
Stace 4th ed. (2019). English names are largely unchanged although we have
rebelled on the odd occasion, preferring Peanut to Ground-nut for example!
LM: Fair enough. Any changes to how the text is set out?
JP: Before, the text followed a set order, which meant that certain
crucial characters weren’t easily picked out. In light of experience (and by
glancing at the Veg Key copies of users), it has been restructured so the best
key character comes first and there is underlining to highlight these helpful
characters hidden in the main text.
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John leads a Veg Key workshop at the
2016 Recorders' Conference
Image: R. Mabbutt |
We’ve obviously kept with the polychomotous
key design as this makes for a speedier key, by setting out all the options.
LM: Oh good ideas, the re-structuring and the underlining. My copy of the first edition is full of underlining and highlighting, as I
think you’ve noticed! So lots of reasons for anyone who loved the first edition
to invest in a second edition.
With all these improvements, does the new book weigh much more than its predecessor?
JP: Remarkably, the weight is exactly the same – botanists
have enough stuff to carry with them! In the original preface, we talked about
a “bigger and better edition”.
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John & friends at Cookham Commons
after BSBI 2012 AGM in Berkshire
Image: L. Marsh |
Our kind critics were not happy about the
“bigger” bit so we’ve kept the number of pages identical without reducing text
size or information. No mean feat but we’ve used space much more efficiently.
LM: Great, so better but not heavier! How about
the illustrations? Have you used the same artists and illustrators this time?
JP: The focus has largely been on the text as we wanted to get
it as accurate as possible, but Robin Walls kindly provided some more illustrations to fill in
gaps and clarify text (particularly with the sedges).
The colour plates by
Colin Smith and Niki Simpson have been updated too. One day, we’d like to
produce a fully illustrated version – would anyone care to draw?!
LM: Botanical illustrators – form an orderly queue and send me your details, I’ll pass them on to John!
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There's always a crowd around John's
Veg ID quiz - this one at the 2014
BSBI Exhibition Meeting
Image: L. Marsh |
So it sounds as though the “Veg Key 2” is
the ideal Christmas present for any keen botanist. But before then we have the
BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting which takes place on 23rd November at the
Natural History Museum.
JP: Of course! It’s the big winter social event for every
botanist, is it not? Always fun to puzzle over obscure plant specimens and you
never know what someone might bring.
LM: Great, I suspect your stand will be even busier than
usual this time. Thank you for telling us about the second edition of the
Vegetative Key to the British Flora – and many thanks to you and Eric for
producing it!
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John (in background) hunting for
non-flowering rosettes of lizard
orchid (in foreground)
Image courtesy of J. Poland |
So at this stage dear readers, you’ll be wondering how you can
get your hands on a copy of this amazing new book: there’s a flyer here with details of how to order the book and take advantage of the pre-publication
offer.
So
if you’d like to order your copy at the special price of £19.50 inclusive of postage (compared to the RRP of £25 excluding postage), just head over to the
Veg Key webpage, scroll down and use our secure PayPal facility.
And once you
have your copy, why not get in touch and let us know what you think
about it? Or send us a photo of you and your botanical colleagues using the new Veg Key? Like the one below - students on the LUBG 'Botany for Beginners' course all using Veg Key 1st ed to get started with plant ID!
