Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Peterson Field Guides has produced another winner. Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs by Steven Foster and Christopher Hobbs is a gorgeous guide book by, pardon the pun, the leaders in the field. This particular field guides sets the standard by which all medicinal plant guides should follow. Brilliant colour photographs of the over 500 identified species organized by colour for quick reference helps any novice quickly identify the plant and what'll happen if you try to make tea out of it. The detailed plant descriptions also include scientific name, family, location found, historical medicinal uses as well as highlighted warnings for poisons, allergies and other areas of caution. A very unique and special field guide Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs also offers harvesting and conservation tips. Pick this book up before you even considering picking flowers, herbs or plants for uses other than the filling your vase, it's a must have for anyone spending any extended time in the outdoors.

I am a layman who is looking for a guide to herbs that would help me identify herbs in the wild. My expectation was that the photographs in
A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs would be fantastic and would help me ID plants in the wild with confidence. I was not pleased at all.

The photographs in this book are thumbnail size and often show only the flowers of the plants in question. The book itself is of a tiny size and affords little space to have "real" close-up photographs of leaves and overall look of the plant in-situ.

I would contrast this "Reader's Digest" version of a book made to identify plants in the wild with Roger Phillips' Mushrooms And Other American Fungi Of North America. This book is a full 11 3/4" X 8 3/4" and has photographs that fill a whole page, in some cases. I think it is fair to say that every photograph in Roger's book is larger than ANY picture in A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs, whose photographs are attributed Stephen Foster. A quick view of Foster's web site shows similar "thumbnail" sized photographs. I am greatly disappointed!

The text contained within A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs pales in comparison with what can be found on line.

I am hoping RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses gives a better view and history of the plants.

In closing, I would say this book should be the last on your list - not the first!

I struggled with what star classification to give this book. On one hand, I find it very informational. On the other hand, I have a hard time figuring out what plants I am looking at. Apparently you need to have some deeper knowledge of plants before using this book, which I don't have. So I find it difficult to use when I am in the field. I don't even bring it along with me anymore, and sometimes resort to take pictures of the plants and then see if I can find them in the book later. So I find the book to be very much a mixed bag.

Peterson's Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs is a contribution to botany and field identification. This guide includes medicinal species, potentially dangerous ones, and plants with true healing powers. There is a description of range, habitat, medicinal uses, and a toxicity warning beside the species listing. Hundreds of species are covered, making a classic guide, one that deserves to revolutionize the botanical field guide section.

My scores are based on the usefulness of this book for foraging medicinal plants.
Overall rating: 3 stars
Number of plants: 4 stars
Treatment lists: 4 stars
Treatment details: 3 stars
Picture types: small color photographs
Plant identification: 2 stars
Who will find it useful: truly dedicated novices, experienced foragers & herbalists, backpackers, hunters, preparedness-minded & self-sufficient folk, all of whom live west of the Rocky Mountains or in non-desert areas of the southwest.

This book suffers the same fate as other Peterson edible/medicinal field guides, the pictures are just too small to be much use to novice foragers. Many people attending my wild edible/medicinal plant classes come with a copy of this book and none of them have been successful in identifying more than 5-6 plants from these guides. A dedicated beginner who uses the book as recommended by the publisher (directions at front of book) will have a higher success rate. Most people don't follow these directions which leads to their frustration with the book. True, this is more the fault of people than of the guide, but it's something you need to keep in mind when deciding if this would be a good field guide for you.

If you can already identify the wild plants in your area this book will be a great and useful addition to your library. It mainly limits itself to tea treatments (drank or applied to skin) but does a good job of covering all these uses as well as stating which have scientific backing and which are folklore. Sidenote: I'm not saying anything bad against folklore uses, just that in many cases there hasn't been enough scientific research to confirm these uses. The back of the book contains a nice cross reference between symptoms/aliments and the associated plants for treatment. There is a lot of overlap of plants between this guide and A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide). "Desert" plants aren't very well covered in this guide, I suggest Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest: The Definitive Guide to learn more about them.

This is a definite buy for anybody who wants to learn more or get into herbs and various medicinal plants! superb! nice high quality color photos inside!

Like all the Petersen guides, it is well laid out, easy to follow and has stunning pictures. I'm a petersen field guide groupie!

A most informative book and excellent guide to medicinal plants and herbs. The book came in excellent condition and was shipped fast. Thanks

I love this book! I'm a Clinical Herbalism student and this book is excellent for my herbal education here in western Oregon. I took it on trips to Detroit and Suttle Lakes last summer and was able to crete my own photo journals thanks to this book and my digital camera. Pipsissewa is even more beautiful in real life!

i ordered the book 2 times 2 different suppliers and still havent received the book as of 8 19 09. 1.5 months come on is this something you would recommend to anyone?