Ferns & Allies of the North Woods: A Handy Field Reference to All 86 of Our Ferns and Allies (Naturalist Series) Paperback – October 18, 2016

My daughter loved this field guide! Beautiful illustrations, lots of information, nice handy size (put in your back pocket) I would recommend it....AH

Though I live in northern New England rather than the northern Mid-West, which is the area covered by the book's range maps, this is just about the finest and easiest to use field guide to the ferns that I have ever seen. I have numerous other guides, but the sheer number of photos and the very detailed write-ups are just so helpful. If you want to learn the ferns of New England, at this point this is far and away the best guide available.

Great book for Minnesota! Well written and nice photos!

Yet to read. More as reference.. Feel short or details.

Great book on ferns of this area!

Ferns and Allies of the North WoodsJoe Walewski, 2016Kollath+Stensaas Publishing, 394 Lake Ave. South, Duluth MN 55802Reviewed by Mike BreidingThe release of Joe Walewski's Ferns & Allies of the North Woods by Kollath-Stensaas Publishers ushers in a new era for high quality fern field guides.This slim pocket sized field guide has much to offer for such a small package.Included are general background and history sections of the ferns along with descriptions, artwork, photos and range maps for 86 species.The Guide measures 4.5x8.25 inches and is about 3/8' thick which makes it easy to tuck into a back pocket or stow in a fanny pack. The book is printed on coated paper and the pages are "stitched in" rather than "perfect bound". The latter method almost always results in pages coming loose after repeated use.Walewski has packed a lot into such a small package and it is obvious much thought has gone into the selection, layout and presentation of the contents by Kollath-Stensaas Publishers and the author.Walewski opens with a table of contents followed by the obligatory "Acknowledgements" page.Next comes Walewski's introduction: "Welcome to the Magic" where he delves into the mystery, mythology and hidden beauty of these seemingly "magical" plants. Walewski talks about the "Pteridomania" which swept through Europe in the 1800s and also includes a couple of quaint etchings from that period. He then discusses the various practical uses of ferns for food, scouring pads and flash powder. Such esoterica are the "fun facts" which make ferns so interesting and intriguing, especially for those being newly introduced into the wonderful world of ferns.None of this esoterica will be new to the seasoned student of ferns but I found it fun and stimulating to read and it took me back to the day when I was a fern novitiate and delving into such classics as Clute's "Our Ferns in Their Haunts".Walewski goes on to explain the scope of the book and then the real fun begins! The reader is instantly offered a visual feast of color illustrations of the various types of ferns along with detailed yet clearly understandable text in plain English.At this point the author takes us back in time to the Carboniferous era when ferns ruled the earth. Once again, there is much detail here in the discussion of how coal came to be and how our use of that coal has had a global impact and a bit of playful moralizing as to what all this might mean to our plantet. Next comes an easy to digest chart of geologic periods and a look at the creatures which came and went over the millenia and where ferns fit into all this.And now we get to one of the most interesting aspects of ferns: reproduction. Or as Walewski titles this section - "No Birds or Bees Required". This down to earth and humor infused way of writing has served the author (and thus the reader) well throughout the book by making often complex topics seem fun and non threatening. Kollath's illustration of the fern life cycle is beautifully done (as is all of his artwork): lots of detail but no clutter. The accompanying explanatory text clearly spells out what is going on at each phase of fern reproduction. Included in the discussion of fern reproduction are clear explanations of vegetative reproduction and hybridization.Next Walewski takes us out of the lab and into the field with a thorough section on the various types of habitats in which ferns may be found and what one might expect to find on a seasonal basis. Here the accompanying photos of ferns through the four seasons adds visual impact which helps reinforce the textual information supplied. This method of reporting/teaching is repeated through out the book and is one of the reasons I hold this book in such high regard. No assumptions are made about the readers knowledge or interest level and it appears every effort has been made to provide as much information as wanted or needed but in such a way as to be easily understood via text and copious well presented illustrations and photos.At this point we have only reached page 19 of Walewski's Ferns & Allies of the North Woods and already there has been much information packed into a small space.Next comes the section: "How to use this Field Guide". This might seem superfluous but it is a great help in understanding and making the most of the somewhat unconventional, but highly effective and easy to use layout this book employs.This section explains the purpose and use for the seven different entries for each species and explains how to use the five Quick Color Tabs which are there to quickly locate the group section you are interested in as well as three color tabs for habitat. Curiously this section makes no mention of the arrows which are placed in the descriptive text and keyed to the photographs.Now we move on to a wonderful gallery of photos which clearly show fiddleheads (crosiers) for 26 species. These excellent photos are real eye openers and will help the user understand the diversity of shape, texture and color of fiddle heads for the various species shown.Now we get to the meat of the book - the species treatments starting with the fern allies. For the introduction to each group Walewski uses the excellent color illustrations by Kolloth to precisely point out the generalized anatomy for the group.After a thorough treatment of each species of fern allies Walewski then showcases the moonworts in a way I have yet to see in any other fern guide. Included are no fewer than 15 species, most of which have beautiful photos showing clearly the main characteristics helpful in identification.Next comes the section "Ferns of the Forest" in which Walewski has placed all the remaining species included in this book. Rather than sorted by taxonomic group as most guides they are sorted by three different habitat categories: "forests", "wet areas" and "rocky areas". Categorizing a field guide in this way is unconventional but does make it all the more user friendly and has the added bonus of encouraging the user to think: "Where does this fern grow" and "In what kind of habitat is it growing?" This is more of Walewski's teaching method in action and it is prevelent thoughout the guide. Not satisfied with just a show and tell book on ferns Walewski has taken the opportunity to teach at every turn of the page of this guide.There is no doubt this method of grouping will take some acclimation by users of more conventional fern guides. I know it will for me. But, I like it.Wrapping up the book is a glossary with 132 entries, a listing of other books on ferns, information on The American Fern Society, photo credits, and last, but certainly not least a handy checklist. In keep with the thorough and detailed nature of the rest of the book Walewski provides not just a list of names for the checklist but also includes synonymy for both common and scientific names. For the scientific names the author's name along with where and when that name was first published is included. This might seem like overkill for just a checklist however it provides a sort of "one stop shopping" for fern names.Closing out the book is a complete alphabetical index for both common and scientific names and finally a few blank pages which can be used for field notes.I think it is safe to say the design, layout and artwork which Kollath+Stensaas Publishing use in their field guides sets new standards for clarity, and user friendliness. As Kollath and Stensaas state on their web site "... we publish the books we'd like to have ourselves!"All this combined with Walewski's thorough treatment of the suject and the whimsy and humor which are sprinkled throughout make Ferns & Allies of the North Woods a fun read.Well done.

Pros - Lots of great photos.Cons - I found this book very frustrating to use!- Many of the photos have arrows to indicate important field characteristics, but instead of those arrows being explained right beneath the photo, it is buried in the text - and the arrows aren't numbered so it's been hard to tell what arrow goes with what description. Add to that, is photos and arrows for additional species that aren't necessarily described in the main text, but maybe (not always), in this case are in the photo captions. Photo captions are for a whole group of photos rather than 1 caption per photo so it really takes some digging to figure things out, and even with digging, it's often not clear.- The distribution maps are 2 colors but it's never explained which color means presence and which means absence. Most books with distro maps also describe the range with words so this could be deciphered but not this book.- There is an appendix that lists alternate common names and latin names for each species. I found it very cumbersome to have to flip to the back of the book for info that could have been easily included right on the species description pages. Especially since the common names listed on the main page are often not the ones I'm accustomed to so I have to flip to the appendix.- Finally, there is lots of technical jargon used that is not explained in the glossary or elsewhere. I have done lots of reading on ferns, so I'm familiar with a lot of the language and yet kept stumbling over terms that I was not familiar with and that were not in the glossary nor in the intro sections to each species group.Overall, VERY frustrating to use. With better organization and editing, this could have been a great book. I will NOT be using it as a field guide because the info is all too hard to decipher instead of it being right at your fingertips.

If you live in the Northwoods this series of books is mandatory.

The descriptions, photos & illustrations are very good & the fieldmark arrows are helpful. The ferns are sorted by habitat & similar species are noted & differences stated. It's a useful addition to my library.

Great booklet

A good field guide on ferns.. The great photos with arrows pointing at described terms is a plus. Has no keys. Mostly for the intermediate botanist.