Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges [Paperback]

Reny Parker (Author, Editor, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

A photographic guide to wildflowers of four of the west coast's most beautiful counties: Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino. Includes 542 full color images of the native plants of this area, the familiar as well as the shy beauties that must be sought out. Discover 358 species, 83 plant families, of wildflowers. Easy to use: grouped by color, close up photos for identification. Learn bloom times, habitats, garden tips, native uses, natural history, 33 wildflower hot spots with maps.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reny Parker is passionate about wildflowers. For 17 years, she has found and photographed them in their wild habitats around her home territory. Those images form the heart of her new pictorial and descriptive guide to 358 species of native flowers from Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino counties. Within its pages are representatives of 83 plant families, mostly annual wildflowers but also woody perennials, vines, shrubs, trees, grasses, ferns, and several problematic exotic weeds. Parker has made it easy for even a beginner to find a particular flower in the guide. Plants are grouped by flower color and by number of petals. Species that appear similar are placed near each other, so they can be compared easily. Nontechnical descriptions of the species, composed by some of the region's best native plant specialists, accompany the photographs, often with additional information about a plant's rarity, natural and human history, and garden-worthiness, and always including bloom time and native counties. Other tidbits of information are fun and interesting: Who knew that sneezeweed (Helenium bolanderi) got its common name from its former use as powdered snuff? Or that bitter root (Lewisia rediviva), named for explorer Meriwether Lewis (who described the plant as "naucious to my pallate"), was a food staple for Native Americans? Following the main body of the book are lists and maps of wildflower hot spots in the four counties. Wildflower guide photos are often more about education than artistry, with poor lighting, competing backgrounds, and repetitive bull's-eye placement of their subjects. In comparison, Parker's beautifully composed images stand out as lovely little works of art. Each reflects Parker's devotion to her subject and her goal of inspiring others to care for these delicate gifts of nature and preserve them and their habitats for future generations. --Bay Nature Library-2007 edition

When you do venture out into nearby wildlands, a helpful guide to take along is a wonderful collection of photographs put together by Reny Parker, past president of the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Her book is "Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country and North Coast Ranges." With input from other native plant experts, Parker has compiled brief descriptions of 360 species native to Sonoma, Napa, Marin and Mendocino c ounties. Besides annual flowers, she includes a sampling of ferns, grasses, vines, shrubs and trees. The beautiful photographs are detailed close-ups of blossoms but often are paired with a wider shot of foliage, if not an entire plant. Common, botanical, and family names are given. Lists at the end identify nearby places to find wildflowers. Color-coded photos are sensibly arranged from pale to deep hues -- white, yellow, orange, pink-to-red, violet-to blue, and brown-to-green -- a helpful order for identification since a first observation of wildflowers is their color. Gardeners will be gratified that Parker, who has a colorful drought-tolerant garden in the Cloverdale hills, has noted which wildflowers are appropriate for garden culture. In sharing her passion for wildflowers in the book and on her Web site, Parker hopes to encourage us to take a closer look at nature's wonders and be inspired to preserve them for future generations. --Rosemary McCreary, Press Democrat, 4/21/07

About the Author

For the past 17 years Reny has focused her lens on wildflowers. Her images appear in books, on cards and posters, and the web at renyswildflowers.com. She is past president of the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: New Creek Ranch Press (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097904300X
• ISBN-13: 978-0979043000
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly readable. Range-specific. 4.5 stars, June 23, 2009

By 

A. Friedman "life enthusiast" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges (Paperback)

(I have spent all morning perusing this, but have not yet used it in the field.)

A primary benefit is that this book is specific to Sonoma, Marin, Napa, & Mendocino Counties, so you won't be distracted by species from the Sierras, Central Coast, or further afield. Unlike the many thin little range-specific offerings, this is a full book with 358 species & 265 pages.

Written by a past president of a CNPS chapter (Calif Native Plant Society), the emphasis is on natives. Only a few exotics, those most highly-invasive, are covered, and they are clearly identified.

The descriptions, generally a half page each, are pleasantly-readable, non-technical, and often give a sentence about the meaning of the scientific or common name, garden care, native uses, and other interesting tidbits.

This is a work of love more than science; of the heart more than the intellect. As such, it makes a nice complement to, for instance, "The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers." (One should have both books.) There are occasional "artistic" photos and bits of poetry. Although highly subjective, I think the photographer had an eye for artistic quality at least as much as for definitive documentation.

As such, I think hard-core botanist types might find this book inadequate while amateur nature lovers may find it preferable to a dryer, more technical work.

Most of the photos are a joy to view, although I was disappointed by just a few. For instance, the Calochortus superbus photo did not show the tip of the petal, which is said to distinguish it from the Calochortus vestae. The shallow depth of field on the Saxifraga californica made for an artistic "soft focus" but seemed inappropriate for ID purposes. Unnatural digital sharpening was noticeable on a few larger photos, like the Nemophila menziesii on page 173. But that's just nit-picking--they can't all be perfect photos.

Small sections on ferns, grasses, trees, shrubs, & vines were a nice bonus, although necessarily superficial. There's also maps to "hot spots", an index (common & scientific), and diagrams of flower & leaf shapes.

This is a very welcome addition to our guidebook collection!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best photographic book of flowers for the Bay area, May 9, 2009

By 

Heather (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges (Paperback)

The book is heavy glossy paper, not something you would want to hike great distances with, most likely. I like that they print the flowering times in bold with the flower size and the counties in which they can be found. The plants are organized by flower color and not flowering times. Scientific names and plant families are listed above plant descriptions. One of the best in print for botanizers in the Bay, I think.

I found this strange for my use, but there is information for anyone interested in cultivating many of these plants--I hope this won't lead to stealing natives from parks. Honestly, I would like to see it reprinted with information on where to buy seeds and plants from growers prominently, not just a list of references with a few growers. Personally, though, I wish planting info was completely cut so the book would be more trim (half as heavy), so you can carry it more easily in the hills.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, inviting book, May 3, 2010

By 

poltroon "poltroon" (Mendocino County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges (Paperback)

This field guide is wonderfully inviting for a beginner. The pictures are clear and beautiful; the text is short and simple, giving you just enough to feel satisfied that you've located the plant and learned a little bit about it. My 4th grade daughter was instantly attracted to it. Because it only contains plants found on the north coast, we aren't distracted by impossibilities, and nearly every photograph looks familiar. This is an excellent guide for someone looking to identify plants in Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, or Napa Counties in California.