Customer Reviews

Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

In many cases (even when a plant we knew) the photos were not sufficiently detailed to IDENTIFY THE FLOWER OR PLANT!

I was disappointed with this book when I perused it several times. You must identify the plant by photo, before you can find information about it in the book. When you do find it in the book there is very little information. There are many books that are much better for the same or less money. I'm also very sorry that I bought a copy for a friend as well as mine.

I live on the Treasure Coast of Florida (between Sebastian and Hobe Sound) and up till now I relied on various websites to help me ID plants. Because this method of searching is very time consuming I thought it was time to invest in a field guide.

Armed with 20+ plants already identified I used these as my starting point. My search through the index of this book concluded with 8 listings out of 20+ plants. Such low results are a tremendous disappointment!

While time consuming, I will return to the internet for more current and accurate plant identifications.

It is obvious that the authors have lost sight of the new flower lover they are tying to reach. Probably academics trying to impress others elitists. The best books I have used while learning flowers back in the coal regions, and later in the deserts of Arizona are those that have the flowers arranged by color. The other esoteric stuff can be in the body and the species cross referenced by key number, whatever. I agree with Dr. Weinberger, another critic. As a new comer to Florida, scouting flowers, or driving along the road, finding a new flower is exciting, but using the book for identification, is most frustrating. As it is the pages are a bit too slick for the traditional use relegated to old catalogs. As it is, I probably donate to some thrift store.`
I advise the authors to tear the pages out, group the flowers by color, add some reference code to relate it others of he same family and republish. I bet they will make a killing. I'll be most honored to review the new book and more pleased to receive a complimentary copy