Field of Science

My Bryology Bookshelf - I

I recently started a list of recommended bryology books on my sidebar. However I wasn't sure how many of these books I had talked about in actual blog posts. So I decided to start up a group of posts that walk through the bryology books on my shelf.



I also wrote about the fabulous bryophyte dictionary, Mosses and Other Bryophytes, an Illustrated Glossary by Bill and Nancy Malcolm.

One of the books on my list that I have yet to talk about is my advisor's most recent book Introduction to Bryophytes by Alain Vanderpoorten and Bernard Goffinet.

When I helped teach and Undergraduate Course in Bryology a few years back we could have really used this text. We used some excerpts from the book Bryophyte Biology. I think that this is a great book too. Unfortunately it is pretty tough for the average undergraduate. Bryophyte Biology is geared more for a graduate student or professional audience.

I have yet to use the new book Introduction to Bryophytes to teach, but I think that it will work really well for that purpose. It is aimed at undergraduate biology students or science savvy amateurs. I have also used the book to hunt up some fun bryology facts for use during my moss walks. If you want to really dig into all the different types of bryophytes and their morphology then this is probably not the text for that endeavor. However it is a look at the biology of bryophytes from a number of different angles, such as Physiology, Conservation, Ecology, Biogeography and Evolution. 

1 comment:

  1. I know this is a fairly old post, but if you are still active here I would love to ask a couple questions.

    Does "Introduction to Bryphytes" go in depth on molecular biology or nutrient requirements/uptake of true mosses?
    Do you have any new recommendations on books pertaining to the above topics, moss and other bryophyte ID, or any others that are worth mentioning?

    I am an undergraduate sudent designing my lesson plan at Evergreen State College where I will be conduction research on in vitro liquid culture techniques of mosses. I have purchased "Bryophyte Biology" 2nd edition already and while it has some useful sections, it mostly pertains to ecology and evolution.

    Thank you for your time,
    -Mac

    ReplyDelete

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