A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs
A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs The most complete work on the medicinal plants of western North America, this guide offers the best information in the world on the nearly 500 species covered, much of it available for the first time. More than 530 color photographs illustrate the plants. An index to medical topics helps locate information on specific ailments. Symbols next to the plant descriptions provide quick visual warnings for poisonous and allergenic plants. Organized by flower color for fast identification, this guide is an essential aid to appreciating native plants and the wild areas they inhabit.
Customer Review: I like it, but….
I struggled with what star classification to give this book. On one hand, I find it very informational. On the other hand, I have a hard time figuring out what plants I am looking at. Apparently you need to have some deeper knowledge of plants before using this book, which I don't have. So I find it difficult to use when I am in the field. I don't even bring it along with me anymore, and sometimes resort to take pictures of the plants and then see if I can find them in the book later. So I find the book to be very much a mixed bag.
Customer Review: All Too Disappointing
I am a layman who is looking for a guide to herbs that would help me identify herbs in the wild. My expectation was that the photographs in
A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs would be fantastic and would help me ID plants in the wild with confidence. I was not pleased at all.
The photographs in this book are thumbnail size and often show only the flowers of the plants in question. The book itself is of a tiny size and affords little space to have "real" close-up photographs of leaves and overall look of the plant in-situ.
I would contrast this "Reader's Digest" version of a book made to identify plants in the wild with Roger Phillips' Mushrooms And Other American Fungi Of North America. This book is a full 11 3/4" X 8 3/4" and has photographs that fill a whole page, in some cases. I think it is fair to say that every photograph in Roger's book is larger than ANY picture in A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs, whose photographs are attributed Stephen Foster. A quick view of Foster's web site shows similar "thumbnail" sized photographs. I am greatly disappointed!
The text contained within A Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs pales in comparison with what can be found on line.
I am hoping RHS Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses gives a better view and history of the plants.
In closing, I would say this book should be the last on your list - not the first!