Fwd: Re: [pct-l] plant guides

[benschif at sonnet.com (Ben Schifrin)]

>Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 11:45:23 -0700
>To: Dave Blumenthal <davedesign@yahoo.com>
>From: Ben Schifrin <benschif@sonnet.com>
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] plant guides
>Cc:
>Bcc:
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>
>I don't think these are a "luxury", but a necessity. A minority 
>opinion, for sure-- many thru-hikers I met this last summer want me 
>to even omit the photos from the guidebook, so they can save more 
>grams! On the other hand, I couldn't live with the thought of not 
>knowing the natural history, human history and geo of the terrain 
>I'm traversing. I never seem to be able to manage less than 4-5 
>pounds of books and maps on any given leg of the trail.
>
>I think only one book fits your needs, and, as Ceanothus mentioned, 
>it is Norm Weeden's "A Sierra Nevada Flora". You can definitely get 
>nitty-gritty with it, and, at least to the level of the genera, will 
>cover all of the montane areas from the Mex border thru mid-Oregon. 
>WP now publishes it; the older editions are more portable and the 
>value of the revisions are probably lost on most persons hiking at 
>thru-speed-- you won't get that much relaxing 
>on-the-belly-with-a-hand-lense time. (Don't need the newest 
>edition-- did I SAY THAT? ;))
>
>There are a number of other contenders, though. Some are 
>out-of-print, but you could probably Amazon them or as some of us on 
>the Left Coast to cruise used book shops for you-- I still see a 
>number of the tiles, fairly regularly:
>
>a. Weeden wasn't out when we originally did the trail. We used 
>Philip Munz UC Press "California Mountain Wildflowers" north of the 
>Kern Trench to Oregon, and "California Desert Wildfowers" from the 
>Mex border to the Kern. I also took his "California Spring 
>Wildflowers" in So Cal. They cover the key genera with nice color 
>plates-- good for amateurs like me, but an insult to your 
>profession. Now out-of-print.
>
>b. Edmund Jaeger's classic "Desert Wildfowers" (Stanford U Press) is 
>biggish. I took it north from the Mex border, read the great ecology 
>chapters, then jettisoned it somewhere. Good background. Unsure if 
>still in-print.
>
>c. Naturegraph Books published 2 books that we carried: "the Sierra 
>Nevadan Wildlife Region" by Vinson Brown and Robert Livezy. We took 
>it from the Kern to Old Station. It has line drawings, 
>unsophisticated keys and is certainly botanically abbreviated, but 
>had the advantage of also including some eco, trees, birds and 
>animals. North of Old Station (sort of the start of the Cascades) we 
>took their similar, "Wildlife and Plants of the Cascades", by 
>Charles Yocom and Vinson Brown. I think Naturegraph is buns-up.
>
>d. "Sierra Wildfowers" by Theodore Niehaus (UC Press) was one I 
>carried for a few years. Smallish, with good keys and a few plates 
>and line-drawings. Again, it will work well in general throughout So 
>Cal and the southern Cascades.
>
>e. There are other, nice, similar overview books, such as Elizabeth 
>Horn's "Wildflowers 3- the Sierra Nevada", and "Wildflowers 2- 
>Sagebrush Country" which covers the high desert fairly well.
>
>f. "Sierra Nevada Natural History" by Storer and Usinger is a real 
>contender to be a constant thru-hiker's companion. Very readable and 
>apropos to most of CA and the Cascades. Has a bit of all natural 
>history, plus geo and weather and nice proto-eco-evangelism. I'm 
>uncertain if it is still in-print. It used to be a foundation text 
>for many CA eco classes.
>
>g. Most of what you see are trees and shrubs, of course, and many of 
>the above flower books don't cover them. You'll get up to speed 
>quickly. Western forests don't have the diversity of an eastern 
>hardwood forest, so the learning curve is short. nature Guild 
>publishes a bunch of tiny pseudo-dichotomous-key books, including my 
>fave "Pacific Coast Tree Finder", which we through-hiked with, and 
>I'd never be without. Glenn Keator's small "Sierra Flower Finder" is 
>in the same series-- very quick and handy.
>
>h. Peterson Guides now cover the area, too, though none of them are 
>as impressive as the original bird guides. "Ecology of Western 
>Forests" by Kricher is smallish; a bit bigger than Sierra Nevada 
>Natural History", and covering the same scope. probably more modern. 
>Could do for you, border-to-border.
>
>i. Washington and Oregon were always harder for me to find "just the 
>right book". In 1973, we carried CP Lyons' delightful "Trees, Shrubs 
>and Flowers to Know in Washington". I'm looking at it right now, and 
>I love it. It is out of print, but his newer "Wildflowers of 
>Washington" (Lone Pine) is fun, but of lesser scope. I carried it on 
>OR-WA this last summer, and it never let me down.
>
>j. Any little Cascade eco or plant guide co-authored by Harvey 
>Manning or with photos by Bob or Ira Spring will be a gem. There are 
>many. REI always has a bunch. You'll learn the plants, sure, but 
>what they really convey is their love of the Cascades. The Springs' 
>photos are world-class.
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>
>
>>Hi folks!  I'm a botanist from the East Coast and am planning on 
>>hiking the PCT in 2004.  I am not familliar with west coast plants 
>>at all, and I know that it will drive me crazy not to be able to 
>>identify anything while I'm on the trail.  So I'm looking for 
>>comprehensive and scientific (preferably with a dichotomous key) 
>>but light weight botanical guides that cover the regions that the 
>>trail crosses.  I consider this to be my one "luxury" item.
>
>--
>
>Ben Schifrin
>Wilderness Press
>1200 Fifth Street
>Berkeley, CA 94710
>510 843-8080
>benschif@sonnet.com