Sierra Wildflowers: A Hiker's Guide

by John Muir Laws

Overview

Naturalist John Muir Laws has adapted his painted-from-life flower illustrations from The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada into a lightweight yet durable guidebook to the area's florae.

From sprawling fields of showy hillside poppies, lupines, and paintbrushes in the foothills to orchids, lilies, and primroses in the higher meadows of our national parks, the Sierra Nevada is one of the premier wildflower destinations in California. Sierra Wildflowers includes the most common species that you will encounter, with fully updated common and scientific names. Flowers are organized by color and shape, making identification easy for flower enthusiasts of all experience levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597144674
Publisher:	Heyday
Publication date:	05/28/2019
Pages:	120
Sales rank:	621,258
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

John (Jack) Muir Laws is a principal leader and innovator of the worldwide nature journaling movement. Jack is a scientist, educator, and author, who helps people forge a deeper and more personal connection with nature through keeping illustrated nature journals and understanding science. His work intersects science, art, and mindfulness. Trained as a wildlife biologist and an associate of the California Academy of Sciences, he observes the world with rigorous attention. He looks for mysteries, plays with ideas, and seeks connections in all he sees. Attention, observation, curiosity, and creative thinking are not gifts, but skills that grow with training and deliberate practice. As an educator and author, Jack teaches techniques and supports routines that develop these skills to make them a part of everyday life.

Laws has written and illustrated several books including How to Teach Nature Drawing and Journaling (2020), The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (2016), The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds (2012), Sierra Birds: a Hiker’s Guide (2004), The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada (2007), and The Laws Pocket Guide Set to the San Francisco Bay Area (2009), all published by Heyday. He is a regular contributor to Bay Nature magazine with his “Naturalists Notebook” column.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments 

Key to Wildflowers

White-Cream Flowers

• White Flower Key
• Orchids and Fungi
• Doctrine of Signatures
• Square Stems and Opposite Leaves: Mint Family
• Poison Petals
• Irregular Flowers: Pea Family
• Small White Flowers in Clumps
• Small White Flowers Forming an Umbrella (Umbel)
• Ancient Greek Medicine
• Biological Warfare
• Beautiful Grass
• Flowers Under a Magnifying Glass
• Lethal Genes
• Hawkmoth Pollination
• Tube- or Cone-Shaped Flowers
• Nectar Guides
• Opposite Leaves
• Flower Perfume
• Sticky Traps
• Flower Ovaries
• Turn Over a New Leaf
• A Wildflower Loved by John Muir
• Plant and Fungus Parasites
• Compound Leaves (Composed of Multiple Leaflets)
• Glandular Hairs
• A Sweet Reward
• Bulbs in a Short Growing Season
• Monocots vs. Dicots
• Lewis and Clark Species Names

Red-Pink Flowers

• Red-Pink Flower Key
• Monkeyflower Pollination Strategies
• Hummingbird Flowers
• Paintbrush and Owl's Clover
• Red Flowers with Dense Heads
• Cushion Plants
• After the Burn
• Picking Flowers
• Shooting Star Pollination
• Nectar Thieves
• Color Change and Pollination
• Plants Without Chlorophyll
• Orchid Seeds
• Edible and Useful
• Milkweed Poison and Insect Relationships
• Seed Pods
• Plants with Variable Numbers of Petals

Orange Flowers

• Orange Flower Key
• Golden Poppies?
• Unrolling Flowers
• Hover Pollination

Yellow Flowers

• Yellow Flower Key
• Flower Puzzles
• Pollen Traps
• Violets' Back-Up Plan
• Peas
• Yellow Tufted Flowers
• Butterfly Food
• Late Summer Color
• A Threat to California's Grasslands
• Pollen Strings
• Change with Elevation
• Unlikely Insect Trap
• Cinquefoil (pronounced sink-foil)
• Little Frogs
• Water Storage
• Ground Nuts
• Lily Pad Homes
• Big Yellow Sunflowers
• Difficulty Identifying Arnica? Relax, It's Not You ...
• Plenty of Pollen
• Goldenrod vs. Groundsel
• Summer Drought
• Dandelion-Like Flowers
• Growing Together

Green Flowers

• Growing Together

Blue-Purple Flowers

• Blue-Purple Flower Key
• Alternate Leaves, Deadly Beauty
• Alternate Leaves, Larkspur Grazing Defenses
• Alternate Leaves, Indian Paintbrush
• Narrow Palmately Compound Leaves: Lupine
• Broad Palmately Compound Leaves: Lupine
• Small Palmately Compound Leaves: Lupine
• Pinnately Compound Leaves
• Opposite Leaves, Tubular Flowers
• Opposite Leaves, Flowers Spreading
• Opposite Leaves, Flowers Spreading with Minty Smell
• Dense Heads of Small Flowers
• Fooling with Fungus Flies
• Insect-Eating Plants
• Ultraviolet Patterns
• Corkscrew Seeds
• An Identification Challenge
• Flower Clusters

Index