Details
Over 715 different plants in 111 plant families are treated, many of these with excellent accompanying color photographs. Both scientific and common names are listed, most in both English and Spanish. Nomenclature is updated, but synonyms still in common use are cross-referenced. Diagnostic feature of the larger plant families precede species and infraspecies accounts.
The plant descriptions, while detailed and technically accurate, are written in an exceptionally clear manner. The descriptions encompass plant habit and height; stem, leaf, flower, and fruit morphology; range; elevation; pollination biology; ethnobotanical uses; and discriminating comparisons with close relatives.
Summaries of the climate, geology, vegetation, ecoregions, and endemism by experts in these fields provide the framework for understanding the basis for the evolution of the plants of this region. Also included are chapters on the diversity and impacts of nonnative and invasive plants and on conservation aspects of the region. A glossary defines technical terms used in the descriptions.
Baja California Plant Field Guide will entice a range of people, from the interested layperson to the professional botanist. It will doubtless become an essential reference for learning the plants of the Baja California peninsula, one of the most floristically diverse regions of the world. In addition, this book will also be useful for plant enthusiasts interested in the flora of the entire Sonoran Desert and southern California, as over 50% of the species covered in the book also occur in these regions.
