Seeds of New Zealand : Monocotyledons

This guide provides, for the first time, an account of the seeds and other persistent parts of fruits for New Zealand monocotyledons. The earlier volume, published in 2001, covered the native gymnosperms and dicotyledons, so this volume completes the treatment of all the native seed plants. It includes more than 700 illustrations, representing all the seed types in the monocotyledons, as well as descriptions and keys to aid identification.

Because seeds survive long after most plant parts have deteriorated, the guide will assist in many sciences: in analysing diet from the gut, gizzard contents or faeces of mammals or birds, recreating past plant distributions from deposits in bogs or soils, and determining native food and crop plants at archaeological sites. And because seeds are relatively conservative structures in terms of their evolutionary diversification, it also provides a wealth of information of use in plant identification and classification a critical science for conservation of biodiversity.