Read an Excerpt

Preface
Avid plant enthusiasts find the Pacific Northwest of North America one of the most fascinating and richest places in the world to study temperate plants. Until now there has been no up-to-date field guide for the entire region, and we have often found the need for such a guide in our individual travels to the far-flung corners of our respective states. Phyllis has spent her life living among the flowers of southern Oregon and northern California. She has a true love of plants that grow in that area, especially the Klamath Mountains. Mark grew up on the opposite coast with a whole different array of native plants but some years ago moved to northwestern Washington and became fascinated by the plants of his new home. He now spends many weeks a year out looking for new plants to photograph.
    
The great beauty that surrounds us in the mountains, on the prairies, in bogs, and along seashores has drawn both of us into this project. We want to share the awe we have for these places and their specialized plants. Nothing excites us more than sharing with folks who are just becoming aware of the diversity of the plants of this region.
    
When this book was first conceived, the need for it was evident, and we were both anxious to work on a photographic field guide to flowers for the whole region. You will find in this book many nonnative plants. We think it is important to know that even pretty flowers are sometimes in the wrong place. The disturbance of soils for urbanization, or the removal of plant and mineral resources for human use, creates huge areas where pioneering plants can take hold. These plants, which can reproduce easily and quickly, are called weeds.
    
We hope that with this book more people become knowledgeable about native plants and their habitats, and that this knowledge leads to a desire to see native plants reintroduced to disturbed places and see undisturbed areas protected.
    
While working on this project we were humbled by the accumulated knowledge available to us at the turn of a page or stroke of a key. The work started with early botanists, first from France, then Spain, the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Russia. Next many English explorers came to the West to study the richness of this flora. In this book you will find plants named for Archibald Menzies, John Scouler, Thomas Coulter, William Tolmie, and, among the most intrepid plant collectors of all, David Douglas, along with many others.
    
We are also indebted to the botanical gardens, large nurseries, horticultural societies, and private enthusiasts who sponsored many of these expeditions. Our heroes are not only the plant collectors but also the botanists at the many institutions who received the seeds and specimens, studied them, assigned them to families, and gave each plant a name. These names sometimes even commemorate the collector, such as Beckwith, Nuttall, Howell, Suksdorf, Newberry, and Henderson. All of these individuals demonstrated great courage, often braving difficult travel conditions, in their tireless drive to find and identify undiscovered plants.
    
Today we are able to study the knowledge assimilated from the work of these and many other field botanists in the floras of the region. Charles Piper’s Flora of the State of Washington was published in 1906. Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States by LeRoy Abrams, printed in four volumes starting in 1923, was the first to assemble all known plants from Washington, Oregon, and California, and was further enhanced with a botanical drawing of each plant. We are also indebted to Morton Peck, author of A Manual of the Higher Plants of Oregon, published in 1941 and still the only complete flora of the state of Oregon. Each of these and many smaller regional floras are still in use and have contributed to the knowledge contained in the newer floras.
    
Our objective for this book was not to record every plant but rather to produce an easy-to-carry guide to encourage and promote the study of the flora of the region. Botany is an ever-changing science, and we have tried to use the most up-to-date plant names. Some names will last, while others will be lost as more knowledge is gained about the anatomy and reproductive systems of flowering and fruiting plants. The name changes may at times seem confusing, but we consider these changes a chance to learn about the relationships between plants and plant families, knowledge gained through the efforts of our present-day pioneers: the leaders and students of botanical science. We hope this field guide will be a stepping-stone from the fascinating lives of the many explorers of the 16th century to the present and into the future, where new scientific studies are sure to further change the face of botany.
    
Most of all, we hope you will use this book to enjoy the flowers.