FREE guide this weekend: Bryony and Nightshades

Can you remember the difference between Black Bryony and White Bryony, two climbers commonly found in hedgerows?

Do you know which of them is poisonous? (Trick question - they are both poisonous!) And can you tell the difference between the two bryonies and the nightshade which is also commonly found climbing in hedgerows?

What about the Nightshade family - one of them is edible, but the rest are toxic, can you tell the difference?

All these questions and more are answered in the Field Guide to identifying Bryony and Nightshades in the UK, available on Kindle from Amazon.

It's FREE this weekend, Sat/Sun 6th and 7th June,so download it for free: and don't worry if you don't have a Kindle, it will work on any tablet, and if you don't have a tablet, you can download it to your PC, so there is no excuse!

Amazon generously provide a free programme, or "app"  to allow you to view Kindle ebooks on your pc, it's very easy to install it, and then you can read not just this one, but any of the other Field Guides which I have published.

There are more than a dozen of them already out there, and I am working through the others - 57 at the last count, and the list keeps on expanding - as and when I get the time.

If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can download all of them for free, every single one: but if not, try this one as a taster and see what you think.

And if you like it (which I hope you will) and find it useful (which I am sure you will) then do please leave a review.

To find it,  click on the link above, or go to the Amazon Kindle store and type in Field Guide UK to see the current list.

As I have said before, these Cribs are for Beginners, and Improvers. They only cover commonly found species, and they cannot replace a proper Field Guide such as Poland or Rose: they are intended to be an easy-access, non-off-putting way to present the salient information in an easy-to-read format, to people who have gone beyond having to key out every single plant, and who are trying to learn the difference between species.

So get out there this weekend, and check out your local hedgerows!

Field Guide to Speedwell: FREE this weekend

Yes, it's that time again, time to publish another Field Guide.

This time I have turned my attention to Veronica: not a particularly difficult group, but it's nice to have all the details in one place.

And remember - if it has five petals, it's Myosotis, Forget-me-not!

As always, if you have Kindle Unlimited, or Amazon Prime, then you can download it for free at any time, but if you don't, then hang on until the weekend and get it free then.

If you don't have a Kindle, that's not a problem, Amazon kindly provide a free programme ("app") so you can download it to your own device, or even to your PC or laptop.

Give it a go, it's really easy!

And then this weekend, you can rush outside and start searching for small blue flowers to ID.

If you have any comments on the book, do please email me on rachy.ramone@gmail.com  and if you like it, do please leave a Review on Amazon, as that will encourage other people to download it.

Free Field Guide to Violas, this weekend

Yes, iSpotters, yet again I am giving away a free Field Guide this is the one for Violets and Pansies, an interesting little group, not particularly difficult, but much easier with this Field Guide to hand:

As you can see, it's free all the time if you have Kindle Unlimited, but it will be free to everyone this weekend, 14th/15th March.

Here's the link to the Field Guide to Violets and Pansies. 

Do download it if it you get time, then get out there and find some Violets to botanise!!

Oak Field Guide: FREE this weekend!

All these Field Guides are free to anyone with Kindle Unlimited, but this weekend - 7th and 8th March - this one is free to everyone.

It doesn't matter if you don't have a Kindle, as Amazon provide a free "app" (or "programme" as we grown-ups call them) which allows  you to view Kindle books on other devices, and even on  your own pc.

I've tried this, and it really works!

Of course, the point of publishing these Field Guides to Kindle is for people to be able to take them outside with them, on a mobile device, but there's nothing to stop you reading them indoors, then printing off the Table of Difference and taking it out and about with you - after all, that's what I do, with my pack of cards, the original version.

It's a bit early in the year to be looking at oaks, but now's your chance to download this one for free.

Next FREE Field Guide - Cornus V Buckthorn

I've been galloping ahead with this publishing lark, it's not so bad once you get into the swing of it.

This weekend I'm offering a FREE download of the latest one:

This one is a neat round-up of the diagnostic features of the commonly-found opposite-leaved shrubs.

Quick and easy to check, it saves having to wade through the detailed botanical descriptions in Rose, Poland etc while out walking or botanising.

Just the salient features, presented in a simple grid format.

All my Field Guides are free to download if you have Kindle Unlimited, or Amazon Prime, but if you don't have either of those (or a Kindle for that matter!) you can still download it for free this coming weekend, 21st and 22nd Feb, and you can also download the "app" (or "programme" as we grown-ups call them) to enable you to read Kindle books on other devices, or on your own PC.

As always, they are aimed at Beginners and Improvers, and I strive to simplify without dumbing down. 

The weather forecast is good for the weekend, so get the kids, get out there, get botanising!

The Cribs are being published!! Free this weekend!!!

Finally, after months of nagging from my Botany Crew, I have found a way to publish the cribs at minimal cost.

Here's what they used to look like:

... quite literally a pack of cards, hand-written initially, then transferred to the pc,  printed out and stuck to the card. It works beautifully: I can annotate them, then update the printed version.

However, three weeks ago I was introduced to the wonders of the Kindle, and now the cribs are being published electronically: here's number 34 (boy, have I been busy!) and to find it, you just go to Amazon's Kindle eBook page and type in "field guide hellebore" and there it is: once you have found one, just click on the author's name to see all the ones currently available.

They are not all available yet: it takes a while to get each one uploaded, and every time I revise anything they come off the "live" list, but I'm working my way through them whenever I get time.

They are currently priced at £1.99 each, which is the minimum price I can set, but to get round this, I
have devised a cunning plan: each month, for the first weekend of the month, there will be Field Guides offered for free download.

Amazon restrict me as to how many "free" days each book is allowed to have, but I'll try to rotate the titles on offer, so you have a good chance of getting whichever ones you want, for free.

Please bear in mind these are for Beginners, and Improvers. They only cover commonly found species, and they cannot replace a proper Field Guide such as Poland or Rose: they are intended to be an easy-access, non-off-putting way to present the salient information in an easy-to-read format, to people who have gone beyond having to key out every single plant, and who are trying to learn the difference between species.

In fact, they are for people who have gone beyond "It's a Willowherb!" and have reached "But which one?"

This is where these little Field Guides come in: once you are confident enough to recognise that it's a (for example) Willowherb,  you can save time wading through the in-depth botanical descriptions in Rose, Poland, Stace etc,  and merely take a quick look at the Field Guide on your Kindle, which has all the salient information neatly laid out in a grid, so  you can quickly and easily check which characteristics your plant has.

It drives me mad, the way that none of the guides present the information in the same order, even on the same page of their book: and frequently I have had to have three or four reference books open at the same time, as well as extensive internet research, in order to round up all the information required.

And if you don't have a Kindle? Apparently, that doesn't matter, you can download them to your PC, or to other devices, with the help of a simple "app" (or "programme" as we grown-ups say) which Amazon kindly give away for free. Also, if you are a member of Kindle Prime (or some such name) then you can download for free, and I rather think there is another layer of Kindle reading whereby you can "borrow" an eBook for a short time: I think that's a subscription thing, but if you have it, you'll already know about it.

So there you are, the Cribs are/will soon be available, this coming weekend 7/8th Feb will have two books for FREE, Hellebores and Tilia (Limes): do please check them out, use them, annotate them (Kindles are brilliant, you can make notes on your eBooks!) make them your own.

If you spot any mistakes, do let me know: and if you have any feedback or criticism, I'd be pleased to hear it.

Mystery Conifer

Today's Mystery Tree: a conifer, from Harcourt Arboretum, unlabelled.

Overall tree shape (right)  shows branches ascending at tips.

Last year the foliage on this tree was so dirty - covered in algae, soot, road dirt etc - that we were unable to ID it, we were not even certain what type of conifer it was.

Usually the leaf attachment tells you what genus you are looking at.

In this case we thought last year that the leaves had green petioles (stalks) and it was therefore a Tsuga, and we keyed it out to be Tsuga dumosa (Himalayan Hemlock), but we were not completely convinced.

This year, there was a whole spread of new, clean foliage and we now thought we could see cones in the upper branches, and they were standing upright above the branch, which would suggest Fir (Abies), rather than Tsuga.

The cones (which I could barely see) appeared to have projecting bracts, and to be squat, and dumpy (Two of the less well known dwarves).

A close look at the cleaner foliage suggested it might indeed be Abies, especially when the removal of a couple of leaves left what are clearly round leaf scars:

Leaf scars

Here you can see I have pulled off a couple of the leaves, revealing round leaf scars

Looks like petioles

And you can see why we would have thought it was a Tsuga, these leaves look just as though they have a slightly twisted, green, petiole.

Bark

Stem

Here's a shot of the bark - I never find bark to be useful in ID, but maybe you will.












And here's a close-up of the stem, which I would define as glabrous, ie not hairy.


As opposed to glaucous, meaning blue-ish.

I keep getting those two confused.

Leaf tips

Leaf tip close up - not notched.

Most Abies species are notched at the tip - the usual exception is Abies concolour, White Fir. But they have leaves the same colour on both sides, which is not the case here.

Mind you, they do appear to have stomatal bands on both surfaces, although they are much broader, whiter, and more clearly defined on the underside.

Trunk

A shot of the trunk, in case it helps.

Underside

Showing the underside of the leaf, two wide stomatal bands visible, plus you can see there is a parting underneath, but not a totally clear one.


The leaves, when crushed, had a faint citrus smell - I thought it was grapefruit, but I'm not good at putting names to smells.

Finally, here's a shot of the bud at the tip of a shoot.

I would describe it as yellowy-green, and resinous.

This shoot is twisted round so it's almost upside down - it shows the parting underneath the shoot, being clearly a parting, but not a completely clear parting, if you see what I mean.

We keyed this one out to be Abies delavayi, but the leaves are not curled back along their margins.

We're confused!