Anstey, F. (2020) Published by Wildflower Study

ISBN 978-0-9934933-4-8

There is something about grasses that strikes fear into many a budding and established botanist alike. Faith Anstey’s guide was originally composed for a BSBI (Scotland) workshop to provide a basic guide to grass ID. This book is double the size of the original booklet and fills a gap in the market for an accessible grass ID resource targeted at people who are just getting started. It focusses on twenty grasses that are commonly occurring in neutral grasslands, plus seven closely related species found in slightly different habitats. The book opens with an explanation of the four kinds of monocots and how to distinguish a grass from a forb, sedge or rush using a simple flow diagram. Then there is a dedicated section on grass structure complete with annotated sketches. My eyesight is not great so I personally would have liked larger diagrams of the ligule examples. I like the inclusion of an overview that gives the reader a chance to test their knowledge with a photo quiz. One of the key remits of Anstey’s book was to avoid the use of a scary key like those of Hubbard. Instead, Anstey adopts a flow chart approach that takes the reader step by step through examining the grass, starting with whether the inflorescence is a spike (or spike-like) or a panicle. Each step has photographs, identifies features that need to be checked and flags how to distinguish lookalike species. It’s great to see Anstey tells the reader whether the ID is definitive (the only common species like this is…) or open to interpretation (most likely to be…). The flow chart closes with advice to users who failed to get an answer. The further reading section provides an annotated list of books that tackle grass ID, but weirdly no publication years have been given. Overall, I would highly recommend this guide and will be inflicting this on my ecology students.

Reviewed by Dr Sarah L. Taylor on 9 July 2026