Urban Lichens: A Field Guide for Northeastern North America

Detailed color pictures and excellent description of each

Interesting and informative. Includes a lichen tour of New York City.

Whether you are a beginnner or experienced with lichens, the Urban Lichens guide has incorporated some helpful ideas not found in other guides. 1) The species photographs are especially well chosen to represent what people really see with the naked eye, a magnifying glass. or hand lens (as opposed too often to photos that are not focused enough), AND this guide often includes coins, corner of a credit card, a metal pin, or a finger which helps the viewer get an idea of the size of a lichen; 2) The couplets in the identification key are short and simply written, making it easy to decide where to go next - as long as the user understands the unavoidable terms for lichen shapes and structures which takes me to THE MOST OUTSTANDING PART OF THIS BOOK; 3) THE ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY. Here, lichen terminology is described in text AND MOST IMPORTANTLY by excellent closeup photographs of the structures with labeled arrows pointing to them. The Illustrated Glossary alone makes the guide worth acquiring.After such a Rave Review, why did I rate it 4 and not 5-stars: because I live and do most of my lichen field work in rural locations and my issue with this guide is its restriction to "urban" lichens. Still, this little book includes 56 genera and 111 species of some of the more frequently met lichens and I regularly use its key as a quick guide to the genus level when I get stuck in more technical references.

I bought this even though I live thousands of miles away and already have an excellent local lichen book. These authors have written the best introduction to lichens that I have seen. I had to have it!They introduce the reader to words like perithecia, hydrophobins, and trichogyne, yet write clearly enough that most readers will enjoy the technical language. Trichogynes are compared to pipe cleaners and propagating pustules are like balloons. Clear, technical and humorous, I couldn't ask for more.

So wild! Lichen are so interesting. This book makes it more accessible

Found this to be an interesting read - a great introduction to lichen that are found in urban surroundings. The photo's brought the lichen biology to life!

I thought this was an awesome book on lichen, perfect for beginners and experts alike! The background information was very useful and all the pictures were great! Now I’m just waiting for another one for the Pacific North West!

My ten year old said it was a pretty good book. Accessible, good pictures, fun info. We can easily spot similar lichen around our neighborhood. I love it for nature homeschooling.