Technical Abstract: The focus of this paper is to document the clear and obvious advantages of field work for monographic studies. These advantages include: 1) ability to understand published distributions better and greatly expand these data, 2) access to taxonomic data obscured on herbarium sheets (as colors, odors, glandularity, branching patterns) but best observed in the field, 3) ability to take photographs for species illustrations or habitats, 4) access to ecological and populational data useful to understand possible hybridization or isolating mechanisms, 5) access to population variation, 6) access to collections best obtained in the field useful for later morphological or cytological or molecular studies (as liquid preserved parts, fixed flower buds, or silica dried tissue), 7) ready access to collections, including types, in herbaria where the plants grow, highlighting possible new species or distributions before you commence collecting, 8) access to local experts or local residents who may lead you to new localities or provide critical data in other ways.