Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years, I've purchased a dozen or more books to identify desert wildflowers photographed during Superstition Wilderness hikes. This is by far the best book that I've found.
- Clear closeup photos that capture the distinctiveness of each flower
- The flower photo are grouped by color and size so if you see a "small blue flower", you can quickly see if it is in this book
- Informative details: Height, Flowers, Stems, Spines, Bloom months, Elevation, Habitat, and Comments


Check out the index to see the depth of the coverage.

This book has been an amazing help to me in identifying trees, cacti and flowers around the state of Arizona. It is well-organized, with glossy color pictures in the front half of the book, grouped by color in a relatively easy-to-find way, under descriptions such as "Daisylike and Dandionlike White or Whitish Flowers" or "Tiny Pink to Reddish Pink Flowers." Under each photograph is the flower's common name and the page number for the back portion of the book, in which detailed information is found.

In the back section, each plant's description includes: All the known common names; the scientific name and family to which it belongs; the plant's height; detailed, non-scientific description of the flowers and leaves; the bloom season; the elevation at which the plant grows; the habitat in which it is found; and additional, relevant comments, including where the photograph was taken and if the plant is poisonous, or has any traditional medical uses, etc.

My only disappointment is that, surely for brevity's sake, some plants are left out, which, while understandable, can make some identifications questionable. For instance, in trying to ID a high-elevation paintbrush, the book mentions "Over a dozen species of Castilleja in Arizona; the species of this genus are difficult to identify." And only four of those dozen species are in the book. Still, with 853 species pictured and described, Plants of Arizona is much more thorough for the state of Arizona than any other field guide out there.

There is no current book available that discusses the plants of this state. I believe the last comprehensive book was printed in the 70's. This is a good comprehensive guide with many colorful photographs, and lots of good information.

A slightly less than perfect reference for the slightly more than serious amateur or the out of region professional.

Somewhat, perhaps necessarily, overlarge for convenient use in the field.

Rather beyond the Sunday stroll wildflower fancier.

Like any so-called field guide in which all the images are collected in a separate section, actual field identification using PLANTS OF ARIZONA is troublesome. This is a criticism of the book's utility, not of its' excellent content.

I have to say that I can agree with all of the reviews up until the date of this one. In other words, I can see the negative aspects from "A reader" who gave the book 2 stars and I also see the positive attributes that many reviewers expressed. Overall, this is a useful book with good information but the formating makes it difficult to use in the field. Mainly because the color plate section is separated form each written plant account but the page number is given under each photo. Sometimes the photos only show the flower and not enough of the entire plant making it difficult to quickly identify plants visually; however, this is a common problem with many field guides. The only other complaint I have is that there aren't any distribution maps but instead a brief habitat description is provided. If you live in the Phoenix area or south-central and southwestern part of AZ which is Sonoran Desert then you may find Dr. Richard Spellenberg's "Sonoran Desert Wildflowers" from 2003 useful.

I am disappointed with this book, which I purchased due to the mostly positive reviews here on amazon. Here are my issues:

1. The book consists of different sections: First the photo section, then the descriptions. To identify a plant, one needs to first find the photograph and then find the description. Most field guides show the picture on one side of a page and the description on the other, for good reason - it is much more practical!

2. The photographs are small and often don't allow identification of a plant, which is the purpose of the book. For example, I noticed a yellow-flowering plant growing next to the road, in masses. I could not find it in the book. After consulting another identification guide, it was clear that the plant was Baileya multiradiata, one of the most common roadside flowers in Arizona. The photograph in this book only shows a close-up of the bloom, but what makes the plant easy to identify is the plant in its entirety.

3. As a serious plant person, I am irritated to see that the captions below the photographs and the descriptive texts list the common names. Common names are often misleading (see below) and differ from region to region. A serious plant guide should use the scientific name for indexing and captions. Case in point: to me, a cholla is Cylindropuntia. How come that there are multiple "chollas" in the book that are clearly a type of Opuntia, or prickly pear cactus?

4. Ms. Epple states that the book does not contain descriptions of weeds and grasses. What makes a weed a weed? A weed is a weed only in the eye of the beholder, one person's weed is another person's treasured plant. I find this distinction non-scientific and misleading.

Since I cannot find most plants on my property in this book, they must be either weeds, grasses, unidentifiable due to the size and type of the picture provided, or some other reason. This book gives information on plants that I was able to identify, but I do not recommend it as an identification guide.

Very informative with great pictures and descriptions. I use this book to identify wild flowers and weeds I find on my hikes in the desert.

This is a great book for anyone starting to study of the plants of Arizona. Clear, full color photographs make identifying these plants easy and fast. Not a complete flora, but the reference photographs make this book a valuable guide.

I wanted a summary reference in practical language, and that's exactly what "Plants of Arizona" delivers. A great reference for anyone interested in Arizona plants.

This is one of the best books I've seen for identifying wildflowers in Arizona. They have a large representation of flowers, with good pictures, covering the diversity of the state. I highly recommend this book.