Ted Elliman

A decent regional guide, with mostly good pictures and solid descriptions. It is formatted in a way that allows one to use it as a flora, without all the jargon of a flora so a layperson could identify the flower...if, of course, the one they are looking at is in the book, one of the weaknesses of field guides. The descriptions were good, as was the explanatory material at the beginning on how to use the book, too simplistic for a person trained in plant taxonomy, but I realize for many people it is written at about the right level. Rather than trying to bring the book down to the level of the average layperson, the book attempts to bring the average layperson up a level or two. It does have one of the perennial flaws of regional field guides: the distribution is only described for the area...and in this case, only by state for the most part. For those who have worked in many states, it could be helpful to list a more complete distribution.… (més)

The cover boasts that this book includes "user-friendly organization" but this clearly isn't a guide for the ultimate beginner. If you're not fluent in botany terms like "radial petals", and if you don't know a raceme from a radish, you're likely to find yourself a bit lost here. I also didn't like that there was only one, sometimes two, photos per entry. It's hard to identify a plant with just one photo. On the plus side, this one pretty much covers any wildflower you're going to find in the New England area.… (més)