Winner, Best of Show Award, Society for Technical Communication International From the East Texas swamps and forests to the Edwards Plateau canyons and the Trans-Pecos mountains, Texas hosts a surprising number of native orchids. Their exquisite beauty endears them to everyone from wildflower lovers to professional botanists and conservationists. This beautifully illustrated book presents all 54 wild orchids of Texas. The species descriptions that accompany Joe Liggio's lovely color photos discuss the plant's flowers, blooming season, pollinators, typical habitats, and range (also shown by map), including its distribution within and beyond Texas. The species are grouped by genus and also listed by color, county, and habitat for easy reference. In addition to the species accounts, the authors offer a general natural history of Texas orchids that discusses such topics as pollination and reproduction, special growing requirements, and threats to orchids from loss of habitats and careless collecting. They also describe the many orchid habitats in Texas and the species that grow in each. This wide variety of information, which has never before been collected in one volume for a general readership, makes this book the essential guide to Texas' wild orchids.
Preface- Acknowledgments- Texas Treasures: Fifty-four Types of Orchids- An Infinite Variety- The Discriminating Orchid- The Natural Regions of Texas- How Texas Orchid Habitats Are Described in This Book- Orchids of the Bogs and Savannahs- Orchids of Open Sunny Habitats- Orchids of Forests and Woodlands- Orchids of the Mountains and Canyons- Texas Orchids by Flower Color-Texas Orchids by Genus and Species- Calopogon- Cleistes- Corallorhiza- Cypripedium- Deiregyne- Dichromanthus- Epipactis- Habenaria- Hexalectris- Isotria- Listera- Malaxis- Platanthera- Pogonia- Ponthieva- Schiedeella- Spiranthes- Stenorrhynchos- Tipularia- Triphora- Zeuxine- Appendix A. Sources of Scientific Names- Appendix B. Excluded Species- Appendix C. Species Distribution by County- Literature Cited- Index