2: More than just a great little field guide....
I own several field guides to Texas wildflowers, and I find this one to be the best among them. There are books with bigger and better photographs, but none come close to having the nearly 400 color photos this one has. This one also has maps of growing areas for each plant identified and very clear descriptions of each plant. It even has sections on Texas' endangered species and landscaping with native plants. The book divides the plants into five sections for easy use. The wildflowers are further divided into colors to help find and identify them quickly. The five sections are (1) herbaceous wildflowers, (2) vines, (3) trees and shrubs, (4) cacti, agaves, yuccas and other succulents, and (5) miscellaneous plants, weeds and growths on trees. These are followed by appendices on how to identify common plant families and "plant watching" as a hobby (collecting plants, how to make a plant press and save your specimens, and a sample wildflower documentation sheet). Finally, there are three glossaries and an index. While some might complain that the plant photographs are not printed with the specimen entries (they are grouped together in the center of the book), this is really quite handy. Each photo is numbered identically with the entries, so matching the photo with the description is really very simple. Indeed, it is quite easy to find the flower by its photo and then look up the corresponding plant description by the photo number. All in all, this is the only wildflower field guide Texans will need. If you want a desk reference, that's another matter.
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