Field Guide To Wildflowers Of The Eastern Region Book Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Since nearly everyone who reviewed this field guide thinks it's great, I want to share my experience. Full disclosure: I've used Peterson's guide in other areas, but not where I live now. This Spring I wanted to go out and identify wildflowers in a nearby park, and found that I had lost my copy of Peterson, but had a copy of the Audubon guide that someone must have given me. So I took this with me, and had a frustrating experience. There were two very common flowers that I saw that I couldn't clearly identify from the pictures in Audubon. One was white, five petals, long narrow leaves. When I got my hands on a copy of Peterson, I immediately identified it as Spring Beauty. The problem: Audubon only has a photo of this under pink flowers, although the description says "pink or whitish flowers"; Peterson has a drawing under both white and pink flowers. The second was a low buttercup-like yellow flower with heart-shaped leaves. I eventually decided, by elimination, that this must be Marsh Marigold, although the Audubon photo didn't show the leaves clearly. Peterson's drawing shows the leaf shape very distinctly, providing a secure identification.Comparing the two guides in general, I find Peterson much easier to use, mainly because the pictures and descriptions are on facing pages; with Audubon, you have to flip between the two sections. Also, for me, Peterson's drawings are more helpful than Audubon's photos, because they emphasize the distinctive characteristics of the plant; although Audubon's photos provide more information overall, sometimes parts of the photo are out of focus or otherwise difficult to compare with the plant itself. However, Audubon's binding is much sturdier, and they provide additional information not related to identification (for example, that the leaves of Marsh Marigold are sometimes used as potherbs but should not be eaten raw).
I had to collect wildflowers during the summer for an Honors Biology class. The field guides we were given were ones with drawings instead of photographs. It was very hard to correctly identify the wildflower with only a drawing. This field guide is excellent. You identify the flowers with color photographs, and the book gives a fairly in-depth description on the flower, habitat, range, and other comments about the flower. I would recommend this guide to anyone who has to identify wildflowers for school, or just enjoys identifying for pleasure.
I have another wildflower guide which I tried using and was very frustrated with their drawings and color plates. I bought this guide out of desperation---and am completely satisfied. Its simple and easy to use. The flowers are easier to identify with color photography, complete with close up caption. Descriptions are listed later. Not everything is jumbled together, so that your'e fumbling out there around through so many pages. So easy to use. The flowers are more generalized than specific---you won't find 50 examples of a violet--but you'll find several at best. It depends on how detailed you want to get. Quick, ready to use guide that fits perfectly in your husbands fishing vest or in a backpack. Go for it!
There are excellent photos in this book, grouped by color and then by flower complexity. Each picture in the photos section then has a reference to a printed page where detailed information about the plant/flower is presented. It is easy to use and great for an "amateur". My only complaint with the book is that there simply isn't quite enough of it... but, overall it is far and away the best wildflower book I've seen and I have about a dozen different books I use to try to identify wildflowers.
This field guide is probably the field guide I use the most out of all of my Audubon Field guides (I have about 7), and it has never let me down! Identifying wildflowers in forests, wetlands, and even on casual walks has been so easy with this field guide. Even if the exact species isnt in the field guide, it gives me enough information as to what genus and family it is in, so that I can identify it using other sources later. I love how they group the species by color and flower arrangement! I reccomend this to anyone who is interested in entering the botany field!
Something should be said about the ruggedness and durability of this excellent field guide. Mine was purchased about 10 years ago and it has not been lightly used. I dropped it in a creek once and it became as saturated as a sponge, yet after drying out it has never had print or page damage or loose binding. My little boy is always paging through its nearly 900 pages and kids can be very tough on books but this one has held up. Read the other positive reviews of the books content, I can not add much to them. This is the best field guide I have ever had.
Great starter guide, easy to use as plants sorted by color. I assumed it was fairly comprehensive and wanted to use it to ID wildflowers in my yard. Several have not been in this guide and I will need to hunt down a more comprehensive guide.
Husband is a cellular biologist/biotechnologist and LOVES the National Audubon Society field guides. He is slowly building his field guide collection and was thrilled to add this one to it. He's taken it on a few hikes and found it useful. My 10 year old nature-loving son has read many pages in it and found it interesting and was able to identify a few flowers in our neighborhood. These are wonderful books and I highly recommend them.
Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Eastern Region Book National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region: A Comprehensive Field Guide Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States (Jeffrey Glassberg Field Guide Series) Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds: Eastern Region (Stokes Field Guide Series) Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region, Revised Edition The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region: Timber Press Field Guide (A Timber Press Field Guide) Greater Middle East Region: Including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Turkey (Hammond Greater Middle East Region Map) National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees--W: Western Region (National Audubon Society Field Guides (Paperback)) Wildflowers of New England: Timber Press Field Guide (A Timber Press Field Guide) Peterson Field Guide(R) to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers (Peterson Field Guide Series) A Field Guide to Wildflowers: Northeastern and North-central North America (Peterson Field Guides) The Book of Swamp & Bog: Trees, Shrubs, and Wildflowers of Eastern Freshwater Wetlands A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides) Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America, 6th Edition (Peterson Field Guides) A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) A Field Guide to the MOTHS of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides)
