California Plants: A Guide to Our Iconic Flora

by Matt Ritter, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. (Foreword)

--Winner of the Northern California Independent Booksellers' Association Golden Poppy Award--

California Plants  is an essential resource for outdoor enthusiasts. With his vibrant photographs and lively writing, Matt Ritter takes the reader on a journey through the Golden State's iconic landscapes and abundant plant life. This definitive guide features more than 500 species, along with detailed descriptions, fascinating natural history stories, and handy tree and wildflower color identification charts.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Plants, Science, Natural History, Reference

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2018

About the author

Dr. Matt Ritter is a botany professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, where he studies California’s native plants and trees in the urban forest. He’s the author of several books, including the funniest and best-selling guide to California’s urban forest, A Californian’s Guide to the Trees among Us. He won the Cal Poly Excellence in Teaching Award and the International Society of Arboriculture Award for Excellence in Education. He’s an avid woodworker, mason, and gardener.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Botanist Matt Ritter of Cal Poly has written a nice introduction to the plants of California. It's an attractive book, with many color photos, nicely reproduced. It would be a good entry point for new residents and visitors looking to learn a bit about the state. But if you know more than a little about the topic, you may not learn very much. The book doesn't have enough detail to do much specific plant identification -- for that you will need a region or habitat-specific field guide. It's certainly worth looking through the book to admire the many nice photos. And Ritter's discussions of families of plants, and the general habitats in the state, are first rate. 3.4 stars.

[Christina Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. Great photographs and maps, specific and informative. Great for research.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am no botanist, but as a native Californian who no longer lives in CA, I wanted to be able to better identify what trees and plants made our state look like home. This is a great book for a curious novice - tons of photos, concise and interesting explanations, plenty of references to indigenous uses of different plants. One of many fun facts included: LA was built on the original coastal village that the Tongva Native Americans had named ‘iyaanga,’ which means poison oak place. Sigh.

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book with full color photos of common plants, native and not, throughout California. It informed me that my family has been wrong for a full century in how we identified a favorite flower, so that was rather amusing.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every entry is wonderfully-written. I’m sick of only being able to identify the same 30 plants! Hope this helps me.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Perfect for people with a passing interest in plants to the professional in a related field. Beautiful, full color photos. There’s also great descriptions of the plants of the state—light, fun, interesting. The author combines helpful ID hints with uses of the plants and even references why it was given a certain Latin name.

Highly readable and highly usable while out and about. Love this book.

[g-na · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book as a reference but ended up reading it cover-to-cover. It is a great overview of California native plants, organized by the biome in which they are typically or most often found (grasslands, desert, forests, etc.). While it does not cover every of our 5000+ natives (otherwise this would be an immense volume), it does describe about 500 of those, plus some naturalized and invasive non-natives. Descriptions are brief, usually one or two paragraphs, and typically include information about if and how the plant was used by native Californians, its range, any interesting facts, and the meaning of the binomial (scientific) name. The appendices include a glossary of plant terms, an identification key for trees, and a color-coded flower ID guide.

While others have criticized the format of the book because it is not the same as a typical reference, that is the reason I liked it. I have other more typical reference books, but Ritter (who has a PhD in Plant Biology and is a professor of botany) instead gives us info that the other books don't.

[Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

been really getting into lupines lately
ongoing resource

wonderful descriptions with some history sprinkled in. organized by biome and northern/southern california. provides cursory review of common and charasmatic families, and includes a few examples, as well as some random highlight organisms. at times I don't feel like this is the best guide as it's not very comprehensive, but the pictures are amazing.

next steps: take a botany class or read a field guide on lichen

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully clear pictures and fantastic descriptions of the diverse flora that we find in California. A great guide to take on a hike as the book is lightweight, but packed with info in a easy to locate arrangement.

Some images do not have any text so it can be hard to learn more on the spot, otherwise would be 5 stars.

[Jeanette Beaulieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an invaluable resource on the native plants (and invasive species) you will find all over our great state. I have learned so much from it! I love the way he breaks down plants into their different environments (makes it much easier to find the plant you're looking for). I am going to bring this on every camping trip from now on. Great for a new, aspiring botanist!

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was beautiful and informative. Nearly all of the plants I found and wanted to identify were in here and the descriptions and pictures made it easy for me to identify plants I was looking out for. Very good and fun and made me more excited about California's plants.

[jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guidebook to California plants. Conveniently divided into plant zones, with mostly excellent photography, pronunciation guide, origin and explanation of plant names, and more. A worthy field guide to keep handy.

[Josh Fogelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book with many colorful photos. Organizes plants by habitat. Also includes a section on common non-natives. May not have as much detail on each plant, but lots of great photos.

[NormaJean]

CNPS guy in SLO

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good guide for identifying plants when you’re out hiking or trail running.