Seeds of New Zealand gymnosperms & dicotyledons
Colin J. Webb & Margaret J. A. Simpson
This guide provides, for the first time, an account of the seeds and other persistent parts of fruits for New Zealand plants. It covers the native gymnosperms and dicotyledons, but not the monocotyledons which will be treated in a companion volume. It includes more than 1750 illustrations, representing all the seed types in these plant groups, as well as descriptions and keys to aid identification.
Because seeds survive long after most plant parts have deteriorated, the guide will assist in many sciences: in analysing diet from the gut, gizzard contents or faeces of mammals or birds, recreating past plant distributions from deposits in bogs or soils, and determining native food and crop plants at archaeological sites. And because seeds are relatively conservative structures in terms of their evolutionary diversification, it will also provide a wealth of information of use in plant identification and classification—a critical science for conservation of biodiversity.
Published November 2001, 428 pages, A4 hard cover.
165 plates, 9 in full colour. Sample pages: Page 35 Page 36
RRP: NZ$90.00
ISBN 0-9583299-3-1
Published by Manuka Press in cooperation with The Caxton Press.