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Grass Manual: Introduction

The Manual project had as its original goal publication of a single volume on grasses similar in concept and format to Hitchcock's Manual of Grasses of the United States. In 1999, it combined with the Flora of North America project and agreed to give priority to publishing the two grass volumes needed by that project over preparation of the single volume Manual.

The two projects cover North America north of Mexico. In addition to native species and established introductions, they include many cultivated species, some introductions that failed to become established, and a few weedy species not known from the region but identified by the U.S.D.A. as potential threats to U.S. agriculture.

The two FNA volumes will be modified for the Manual volume by omitting literature citations, using abbreviations for frequently mentioned structures, reducing the comments to those required for identification, and omitting introduced species that have not become established in the region. It will also have a more compact layout. As in the FNA volumes, the Manual will have illustrations for all the included species and maps for the native and established species.

The first of the two FNA grass volumes, FNA 25, was published by Oxford University Press in 2003. The second volume, FNA 24, was published in March 2007. For information on how to donate, and other aspects of the project, follow the links on the right.