Manitoba Flora
A Guide to the Vascular Plants of Manitoba: Volume 1: Spore-Producing Plants, Conifers, and Monocots
by Diana Bizecki Robson

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Whether you are a scientist, student, landowner or plant lover looking to identify Manitoba’s native, rare, weedy or culturally important plants, Manitoba Flora is sure to prove the ultimate guide. This is the first flora of Manitoba published since the 1950s, and it includes over three hundred plant species documented in the province since that time. Manitoba Flora—Volume 1 provides a clear, easy-to-navigate, and up-to-date guide to the spore-producing plants, conifers, and monocots of Manitoba. Featuring keys, descriptions, and illustrations for 614 species in 169 genera and 46 families, this well-founded guide features important updates on the province’s vascular plants, including an illustrated overview of plant parts, species illustrations, simple language, and an extensive glossary, aimed at benefiting professionals and amateurs alike. Included in Manitoba Flora are . . . • A history of plant names • Simple identification keys to Manitoba’s vascular plant families, genera, species, subspecies, and varieties • An illustrated guide to vascular plant terminology • Detailed descriptions of the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of each species • Hundreds of species illustrations • Information on plants’ conservation status in Manitoba (whether introduced or native; common, uncommon, rare, or legally protected) • Species’ ecological zones, habitats, and flowering periods • An extensive glossary of botanical terms Additionally, Manitoba Flora acknowledges Indigenous knowledge, foregrounding the original people of the land and their relationship to plants, and includes some traditional names.

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Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson Dr. Robson, BSc (Hon), MSc, PhD has been conducting rare plant surveys and vegetation research in the prairies as a graduate student, environmental consultant, and natural history museum curator for over thirty years. As the Manitoba Museum’s current Curator of Botany, she cares for a herbarium with over fifty thousand specimens, and has interpreted her intimate familiarity with the province’s botanical diversity in fifteen temporary exhibits and four permanent galleries over the last twenty one years. Dr. Robson’s research includes several comprehensive studies of wild plants and their pollinators in prairie ecosystems. As a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, she taught several courses in plant taxonomy. In 2016, she received the James Fletcher Award for her paper describing the ecology of a new Canadian endemic species of water lily; and in 2018, she received the Bruce Naylor Award for her exceptional contributions to the study of museum based natural history in Canada. Interested in getting in touch? Dr. Robson can be contacted through the Manitoba Museum at manitobamuseum.ca. Black Thunderbird/Mukaday Animikii (Shirli Ewanchuk) Elder Ewanchuk is a member of Swan Lake First Nation. She was born into a family of Ojibwe Bear Clan medicine people who gave her access to the knowledge of ritual and ceremonial ways. She was a lodge helper for many years before she started to conduct ceremonies for the community. She learned and worked alongside many gifted teachers, including Don Daniels (Long Plain, great grandfather), Trudy Pashe (Dakota Tipi), Audrey Bone (Keeseekoowenin), and Stella Blackbird (Beardy's/Keeseekoowenin), to name a few. She teaches Indigenous ways of healing, being, and doing, in school divisions, universities, and in the community at medicine camps and workshops.

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Contributors

Author

Diana Bizecki Robson

Foreword

Shirli Ewanchuk