This handy identification guide to the plants that cause billions of dollars annually in crop loss and control measures includes information on:

· The harm that weeds cause

· Benefits from weeds

· Major weed habitats

Accurate full-color illustrations and descriptive text identify the principal weeds and weed groups that invade lawns, gardens, fields, and roadsides. Range maps show distribution within the United States.

Using clear text and detailed illustrations, Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press present accurate information in a handy format for the beginner to the expert. These guides focus on what your students are really going to see. They are easy to use: detailed, full-color illustrations, text, and maps are all in one place. They are easy to understand: accurate, accessible information is simplified without being misrepresented. They are authoritative, containing up-to-date information written experts and checked by specialists. And they are portable: handy and lightweight, designed to fit in a pocket and be carried anywhere.

This book was first published by the University of California Press in 1961 and is an attempt to provide an answer to the long-standing need for reference work dealing exclusively with seed identification. The immediate aim of the manual is to help agriculturalists, foresters, wildlife biologists, and others interested in land-use programs to identify the seeds in their particular fields of interest. The authors have, in the main, restricted the content of the description to those characteristics useful for identification. The descriptions are, to the extent possible, nontechnical and therefore useful to a broader range of interests and skills.