Customer Reviews

An Amateur Botanist's Identification Manual for the Shrubs and Trees of the Southern California Deserts

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At first glance it is clear that this book and its companion of the Coastal Region Mountains are low budget productions: there are no photographs and the line drawings are short on crisp detail. At second glance there appears to be lots of accurate information here: the line drawings may not be strong on detail but are good in giving an overall impression. Both books contain keys printed on a different color paper (mostly: they overrun into the white paper) which are illustrated by small accompanying drawings, which should be very helpful.

Apparently both these books sprang from a course being taught in the field and this shows. These books likely will be very useful to those who go out into Southern California. Their usefulness will be much more limited to anyone not actually in this area.

Among the species treated in "Deserts" there are very many subshrubs, as opposed to "Coastal Region Mountains" where properly woody species comprise the bulk of the book.