The Jepson Manual facts for kids

The Jepson Manual is a special book that helps people identify and learn about plants. It's like a plant encyclopedia for California. This book focuses on vascular plants, which are plants that have special tubes to carry water and nutrients, like trees, flowers, and ferns. It includes plants that naturally grow in California (called native plants) and plants that came from other places but now grow well there (called naturalized plants).

Many Botanists, who are scientists who study plants, simply call the book Jepson. It's created by experts at the University of California, Berkeley, specifically from the University and Jepson Herbaria. A herbarium is like a library for dried plant samples. The second edition of this book is also available online as the Jepson eFlora.

What is The Jepson Manual?

The Jepson Manual is a very important guide for identifying plants in California. It helps botanists, students, and plant lovers figure out what kind of plant they are looking at. The book contains detailed descriptions, drawings, and maps for thousands of different plant species.

How The Jepson Manual Started

The idea for The Jepson Manual came from earlier plant books about California. The first big book was called Manual of the Flowering Plants of California. It was written by Willis Linn Jepson and published in 1925. This is why the new book is named in his honor.

Later, two other botanists, Philip A. Munz and David D. Keck, wrote A California Flora and Supplement in 1958 and 1968. The Jepson Manual builds on all these earlier works, adding new information and updates.

Different Versions of The Jepson Manual

There have been two main versions, or editions, of The Jepson Manual:

First Edition: TJM93

The first edition was published in 1993. It was called The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California (often shortened to TJM93). James C. Hickman was the main editor for this version.

Second Edition: TJM2

The second edition came out in 2012. It's known as The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, Thoroughly Revised and Expanded (or TJM2). This edition was edited by Bruce G. Baldwin and several other experts.

The TJM2 is much bigger and more detailed. It describes 7,601 different types of California plants, including species, subspecies, and varieties. Bruce Baldwin, one of the editors, said that creating this second edition was "the most time-consuming undertaking of my career." This shows how much work went into making it!

The Jepson eFlora: Online Plant Guide

Since 2010, the information from The Jepson Manual has also been available online. This online version is called The Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics − Jepson eFlora. It's based on the second edition of the book (TJM2) and is constantly updated. This makes it easy for anyone with internet access to look up California plants.