Natural History Wanderings

I recently looked at the new Falcon Press  Plants of Northern California: A field guide to the plants west of the Sierra Nevada by Eva Begley. It is an illustrated field guide to 528 easily accessible plant species (both native and alien). It covers the diversity of habitats in the area north of San Francisco and the Sacramento- San Joaquin river delta and west of the Sierra Nevada.

I was pleased to see that plants are organized by plant family. This system puts similar looking plants close to each other in the book. Also, for species that aren’t only one particular color, you don’t have to search several sections to find them. If you prefer to ID plants by color there is a listing of plants by color in the back of the book.

Included are clear descriptions with illustrations of basic plant life and structure.

The description for each species includes the common and scientific name; key plant ID characteristics of flowers, leaves and height; bloom period; elevation range; habitat and at least one and sometimes two or three good ID photos. There are also very interesting additional notes about plant history, ethnobotanical uses, similar species and other useful plant facts.