{"id":2530,"date":"2021-07-15T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2021-07-15T18:34:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T18:34:27","slug":"explore-iowas-biodiversity-with-bur-oak-guides-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/2021\/07\/15\/explore-iowas-biodiversity-with-bur-oak-guides-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore Iowa\u2019s Biodiversity with Bur Oak Guides & Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Author: Kai Weatherman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summer naturally finds us spending more time outdoors, which provides a multitude of opportunities to observe the diversity of plant and animal species that inhabit Iowa. Unless you are already a professional naturalist, you may occasionally wonder about the identity of some species you encounter. If you\u2019d like to satisfy that curiosity without lugging around a bulky field guide, consider checking out one of the many Bur Oak Guides<\/a> available at the Sciences Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most Bur Oak Guides are easy to carry laminated foldout guides (roughly the size of a folded roadmap) published by the University of Iowa Press. They offer a handy way to identify the most likely species of plant or animal you will encounter in a variety of Iowa habitats. There are guides for birds, butterflies, fish, frogs, grasses, mushrooms, orchids, and trees, to mention just a few.<\/p>\n

Unlike the laminated foldout guides mentioned above, there are some titles in this series published as full-length reference books that offer more detailed treatment of their subjects. Among them is a trio of beautifully illustrated books co-authored by Sylvan Runkel that describe the wildflowers and plants<\/a> of Iowa\u2019s wetlands, woodlands, and tallgrass prairie.<\/p>\n

Since the month of July finds so many wildflower species of the tallgrass prairie in bloom, I would be remiss if I did not mention An Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants<\/a> by Paul Christiansen and Mark M\u00fcller, which was published in the Bur Oak Books<\/a> series, a companion series to Bur Oak Guides.<\/p>\n

Whereas Runkel\u2019s books on Iowa\u2019s wildflowers offer full color close-up views of each species with narrative that includes brief natural history, this black-and-white illustrated guide places greater emphasis on plant morphology and provides detailed line drawings that provide a fuller picture of various plant parts critical to properly identify particular species. This title has the added benefit of being available in a free online version<\/a> created through a partnership between the University of Iowa Press and the UI Libraries.<\/p>\n

Full descriptions of individual titles in both series can be found at Bur Oak Guides<\/a> and Bur Oak Books<\/a> at the University of Iowa Press website.<\/p>\n

Featured Titles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Butterflies of Iowa<\/a><\/p>\n

The Elemental Prairie<\/a><\/p>\n

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa<\/a><\/p>\n

The Guide to Iowa\u2019s State Preserves<\/a><\/p>\n

The Raptors of Iowa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Author: Kai Weatherman Summer naturally finds us spending more time outdoors, which provides a multitude of opportunities to observe the diversity of plant and animal species that inhabit Iowa. Unless you are already a professional naturalist, you may occasionally wonder about the identity of some species you encounter. If you\u2019d like to satisfy thatContinue reading “Explore Iowa\u2019s Biodiversity with Bur Oak Guides & Books”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":2531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,51],"tags":[255,256,254],"syndication":[41,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2535,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}