| Author | Poland, J. & Clement, E. |
| Year | 2009 |
| Title | The Vegetative Key to the British Flora |
| ISBN | 978-0-95601444-0-5 |
| Type | Book/Report |
| How Complete | All the British native vascular plants (except apomicts), the vast majority of aliens and many widely planted but as not as yet naturalised species. Hybrids are omitted. |
| Source | 526pp, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) |
| Illustrations | Line drawings in the text and 26 plates of colour photographs |
| Review (by Malcolm Storey) | Colloquially known as the "Pocket Poland", this book makes identifying plants fun again! An incredible work that enables identification of almost our entire flora without recourse to flowers. It can be used at any time of year when the plants are showing. It can even be used while they are flowering since flowers are not always the shortest route to a name. Identification starts with the key to major divisions; this is based primarily on the degree of leaf division. The Alternatives are given single letters and treated in alphabetical order. These are then subdivided into groups which are given two-letter codes. These are also treated alphabetically, each group keying out to species or groups of species (eg genera), these latter being given mnenomic codes which are longer than 2 letters. The longer-named groups are keyed out towards the back onf the book, after the 2-letter section. Developers always seem to commission surveys during the winter months, when this work will come into its own and raise the bar for anybody involved in carrying out such exercises. |
| Examine |  with x8 or x10 hand lens ( with x15 or x20 hand lens is also useful) |
| Specimen Preparation | Leaf sections are occasionally required (eg Carex) |
