Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants [Hardcover]

C. Ritchie Bell (Author), Bryan J. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

This book is a helpful guide to identifying 500 species of Florida plant life, including rare as well as common wild flowers and characteristic trees, shrubs, vines, and ferns. Each description includes both common and scientific names, a range map, symbols to show the season of bloom, and a useful summary code of nine key plant, leaf, and flower characters, to aid in identification. With rich color photographs and brief, nontechnical notes to accompany each species, this handbook is a valuable reference for tourists, residents, students, and anyone interested in plants in all seasons of the year, from Pensacola to the Keys.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A beautiful book, with 500 full-color photographs and a scientific, yet understandable, way of describing exactly what [is] what.

Fort Myers News Press

[An] elegantly definitive book.

Orlando Sentinel

This book is a good addition by competent authors to the books on Florida's flowers.Fairchild Tropical Garden Bulletin

From the Publisher

Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants received the Southern Book Competition Award of Excellence in 1982.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1ST edition (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0960868801
• ISBN-13: 978-0960868803
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous photographs, excellent information, easy to use, November 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants (Hardcover)

This book is a very useful guide to a large variety of Florida plants, as well as a superb collection of truly stunning photographs. It can be used for simple visual identification, but its organization by family and its binomial key make it user-friendly for the botanist as well.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Guide But Not the Most User-Friendly, July 14, 2008

By 

IIJuan12 (Sugar Land, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants (Paperback)

The inside cover has a great chart on how to identify flowers (petal number, leaf shape, etc.). In the back it has an index that helps you narrow down which flower it is by starting with its color and then looking at its other character traits. I'm a beginner simply wanting to identify the wildflowers in my yard. It took me an hour to identify my first flower. I'm used to wildflower books that are divided by color. This guide isn't. It does have nice photographs and a simple description.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for amateur botanist, May 27, 2010

By 

David Mcclurg (Eugene, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants (Hardcover)

If the photo is not sufficient to quickly identify the plant, the descriptions are concise and tell you exactly what you need to know. Differences with similar species are often noted, along with blooming time and habitat.

Also, the author describes the different habitats in florida and if the plant is not native, the author calls that out. I very much enjoyed using this book in the field to identify plants.