Newcomb wouldn't be much good for you if you live in Washington; it's for the northeast. But there's probably a similar one for your area. I find that you really need separate resources for wild and cultivated plants; you won't find garden plants in your native plant books and vice versa, unless the garden plants have naturalized themselves, of course. The real problem with keys is that they always use the detail that you didn't notice when you had the plant handy. Or, my favorite, they use both the flower and the fruit, which is a problem if you only have a picture or saw the thing once. When I'm forced to actually key something out using the local 'bible', Gleason and Cronquist, I either take the book out in the woods with me or end up going back a couple times to check on details. My copy of Peterson's Wildflower book has a list of plant families and brief descriptions of them in the front of the book; my copy is for the Northeast, but I think most of the Peterson field guides have something similar. In fact, most plant ID books have something similar somewhere. For learning about the families it is probably easier to start with a plants you know and go over the family description with regard to that plant; this gets you familiar with the features that the families are based on and you're more likely to pick up on them when you see them in an unfamiliar plant. I think a lot of us learned mostly by practice - the more you look at things the easier it is to figure them out. Does seem like there ought to be an 'easy key to plant families' somewhere, but I don't know of any offhand. WW

You're welcome, Imatallun. I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures. I don't often get good ones of butterflies, believe me. They just won't hold those DANG wings still long enough, no matter how nicely I ask them! Especially sulphurs! They are maddeningly quick! Hi, Tom. If really big cats disappear overnight, they may have crawled off to begin their metamorphosis. They usually like to move away from the host plant, sometimes quite a distance, so that they aren't found as easily. But wasps and lizards and birds and who knows what-all else do eat them. And that's fine, in the grand scheme of things. I just hate it when they get ALL of them. I was really lucky to have found the five eastern swallowtail cats that I did. I had quit looking for them, having never seen them on the fennel during the past TWO years. But I just happened to see ONE, and when I bent down to admire it, I began spotting others. I was really excited. They are very different than the monarchs in every way. Marcia

Gayle, I haven't found many books specific to Oklahoma, but then I am way down south in southern Oklahoma and we don't have a lot of bookstores here either. Two books I purchased from a bookstore in OKC in the late-1990s and used quite a bit were by Doyle McCoy and were published by University of Oklahoma Press in Norman, Oklahoma. They were: Roadside Trees and Shrubs of Oklahoma, and Roadside Wild Fruits of Oklahoma. They had copyright dates of 1981. I don't know if they are still available. Here's some other books I used. You will notice that many of them have the word 'Texas' in the title. They have been just as useful for me here in Oklahoma as they were when I lived in Texas since the prairie plants are virtuallly the same. They include: National Audubon Society Nature Guide: Grasslands by Lauren Brown, 1997, 3rd printing, Alfred A. Knopf Wildflowers of Texas, 1984, Shearer Publishing, Bryan, Texas The Grasses of Texas, 1975, F. W. Gould, Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas Texas Range Plants by S. J. Hatch and J. Pluhar, 1993, Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas Taylor's Guide to Natural Gardenimng, by R. Holmes, 1993, Houghton, Mifflin. Wildflower Handbook, The National Wildflower Research Center, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Texas, 1989 A Field Guide to Texas Trees by Benny Simpson, 1989, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Texas Texas Range Grasses by B. C. Tharp. Probably out of print. Mine is a very old edition from 1952. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas. Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southwest, 1960. Probably out of print. I got mine at a Half-Price Books Store in the D-FW area. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas. The following books are by Sally Wasowski and Andy Wasowski. They all related to landscaping with native plants. I love them. The Wasowskis may have more current books available also. Native Texas Plants, Landscaping Region by Region, 1989, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Yexas Native Texas Gardens, 1997, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas Landscaping Revolution: Garden With Mother Nature, Not Against Her, 2000, Lincolnwood Contemporary Books My FAVORITE native plant book is not a book. It is the Noble Foundation Website. In case you are not familiar with it, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation is based in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and does amazing work with native Oklahoma plants and agricultural/horticultural issues. They usually have books available on their website too. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Noble Foundation Website, Grass ID Page

With the temps we have had, I knew there had to be an explanation! No need for the heated birdbath yet. No juncos so far, and haven't seen a flicker for months, no cardinals for a while either. Haven't put up any feeders yet, but they will go up later this month. Lots of resident bluebirds are still around, as well as nuthatches, chickadees, downys, some blue jays. Goldfinches have been scarce ever since they pretty much stripped the sunflowers. That will change as soon as the thistle feeder goes up. Hoping the abundant crabapples will bring in the waxwings like they did year before last...nothing last year. And there is an upside to the leaves falling...better visibility. Too bad there will be so little daylight. Trade-offs! Susan