"You're not going to be out on a hiking trail in the Duluth area and be more than probably ten feet from a fern or lycophyte at any given time," says Welby R. Smith, author of Ferns and Lycophytes of Minnesota.
The book was organized to function as a field guide for anyone who's out in nature wanting a quick reference on what they discover. "It's not like an encyclopedia, you don't have to go to an index, you don't have to rifle through multiple pages... everything is on facing pages for each species," says Smith. "No one wants to be knee deep in muck, having mosquitos biting them, having to struggle with a confusing field guide."
Color photography from Richard W. Haug is found throughout the book. "I think Rick Haug is the finest plant photographer that I know of," says Smith. Getting some specific photos required extensive travel, scaling cliffs, and going underwater.
Ferns and Lycophytes of Minnesota is available online and at various booksellers.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.