This is a solid introduction book to identification.
Pro's: succinct, easy to read descriptions and clear pictures. Good for identifying very common plants.
Cons: not comprehensive enough, arranged by flower color and nothing else, so you end up having to flip through entire sections for a familiar picture that may not be there. For those who are really looking to delve into botany or weed identification deeply, I would advise you to consider other options.
Before attending herbalism school, I didn't know which guide would be the most helpful to my area (Northern Virginia and coastal Maryland at the time, now South-Central Pennsylvania), so I bought this one because of all the positive reviews. Then, once classes started, my teachers strongly encouraged us to get the Newcomb's Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb for in-depth study. We solely used Newcomb's guide with plant identification, and while I found it tricky to learn how to use, once I understood how it was arranged, I found it much more comprehensive and informative than Foster's Eastern Central guide. To this day, when I bring both guides out in the field with me to identify, I rarely am able to distinguish one plant from the other using Foster's guide (most of the time it's just not there -- i.e., purple deadnettle, henbit, varying types of flowering blue-eyed grass), yet I'm able to i/d it every time using Newcomb's.
Something to ask yourself before you buy an identification guidebook is how in-depth you want the book to be and how seriously you take botany. If you really want to dive in, then you may want to consider a more comprehensive guidebook.
- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
