Lawrence Newcomb

When I picked up Newcomb's Wildflower Guide from the library, I didn't have a clue how to identify flowers using a book, and I was afraid I would be in over my head. I shouldn't have been worried: Newcomb's wildflower categorization is easy to pick up on, using readily understood visual cues like the number of petals on a flower, flower color, and leaf type. I was able to identify almost every flower I was trying to name, and I'm as amateur as it gets.

Using this guide is infinitely faster show more and less frustrating than trying to figure out flower names online, and the illustrations are very well-done and helpful. I do wish more illustrations had been in color, but the black-and-white drawings are still effective. show less

One of the best laid out field books or guidebooks you will ever see. Too bad I don't care that much and have one for a college field trip that was concurrent with a much more interesting Geology of Northern Michigan class. Still worth having just in case I ever care to decipher a specific violet out in the woods. Assuming I have it with me at the time, which is unlikely.

I held off buying this because it covers the northeast US and I'm in the desert. However, it's a great book for learning classification and identification of plants.

For weeds, flowers & shrubs, this is one of the best ways to find out what the plant is. It works best if you know what the flower looks like - that's the starting point. If you don't, you often can still figure it out, but it takes longer, requires more lookups. There are some color prints, but mostly it is B&W sketches that are quite good. Descriptions are short but to the point.

I have used this in Maryland & Kentucky. It does contain a lot of invasives & transplants, but isn't completely show more comprehensive, of course. I use it only to identify the plant's common & Latin name. Other resources are needed to double check & get more in depth information. It's really just for identification. show less