Southern California Mountains Wildflowers : A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the San Bernadino Mountain Range up to 5,000 Feet, Including San Gabriel, San Jacinto, and Big Bear Regions

Of the mountains of southern California, the San Bernardino Mountain Range is the most diverse, with over 1,600 species of native plants. This book presents 350 to 400 plant species of the San Bernardino Mountains, including all of the dominant species and plants that casual observers are likely to notice. Much more information is given about how to distinguish less common species from the more widespread ones. Most of the common and dominant species of the San Bernardino Range also occur in the San Gabriel and San Jacinto Ranges, so there is ample coverage of those ranges and the book will prove useful in those areas as well. This book should please the plant enthusiast and botanist alike, for it also contains detailed accounts of the many unique species endemic to the Big Bear region, and for which the region is biologically famous and named as a biodiversity hotspot . Plants are arranged by color and plant family. The descriptions are precise and technical enough to please professional botanists, yet they are accessible and easily understood by the non-botanist. The habitat section indicates in which particular mountain range and plant community each species will be found. The comments section often gives much information on how to distinguish among similar species, and it also includes a wide variety of interesting topics about each plant, such as early plant uses, how the plant got its name, interactions with other species, recent research about that plant, and interesting chemicals found in the plant. The photographs emphasize the easily visible characteristics that are most important in plant identification, while the comments section may also provide information about what to look for close-up with a hand lens."