Customer Reviews

Sierra Nevada Wildflowers

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

 

 

This is the book for those of us who want to be able to identify wildflowers in the Sierras. The format makes it easy to find the wildflowers in question. An added bonus is the description of where each plant grows. As a avid hiker, mountain biker, and artist who lives in the Sierras, this book will stay in my daypack!

The good news is that this book is extremely lavishly illustrated with color photos, and surprisingly cheap for something so well produced.

The main thing I don't like about it is that there is absolutely no key, or any other method for identifying an unknown plant. To be able to use this book successfully, you must be able to look at a plant and know enough to guess its family from among the 45 families of flowering plants that are listed in alphabetical order. If you don't know a monocot from a dicot, or an aster from a wild rose, then you're out of luck. Most people can probably learn to identify most members of the buckwheat family fairly easily, but how many will be able to place its atypical members like bistort and mountain sorrel? This book also will not help you to learn how to place plants in their families, except by osmosis. For example, the introduction to the orchid family doesn't mention the characteristics that are most helpful in placing a plant in that family: parallel-veined leaves and flowers with bilateral symmetry. A cross-shaped stigma helps to place a flower in the evening primrose family, but you won't find that out from this book.

For this reason, I would suggest that most people who aren't already expert botanists buy the Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada instead of this book. The Laws book has a very easy to use key. Horn's book might be more useful if you want more detailed information after having already keyed the plant out using Laws.

The other thing I don't like about this book is that it relies completely on photos rather than diagrams. That works sometimes, but other times it adds to the difficulty of identifying the flower. For example, one of the most helpful clues in identifying a flower is usually how many petals it has, but many of the photos show a large plant that has tiny flowers, so you can't make them out. I find the line diagrams in Laws much clearer.

I took this wildflower guide with me to Yosemite and Tahoe areas, and found it helpful. The photos are clear and colorful. The species are grouped by family (Rose Family, Milkweed Family, etc.) and scientific names are shown beside the common names. A typical species description is about one-third of a page, straightforwardly written, sometimes with a paragraph on "similar species" to help you distinguish among them. The introduction very briefly covers the Sierra's geology, plant distribution (zones), habitats, and how to use the book. The appendices cover: Identifying Serra Nevada Conifers (illustrated, plus a Simple Key); Terms You Should Know (botany basics); Glossary; General References; Index. Because of the glossy paper, this book is fairly heavy for its size (214 pages) so it may not be feasible to take on long hikes where packweight could be a factor.