“Plants of Northern California” by Eva Begley includes non-flowering plants such as conifers and ferns. The scope is essentially north of a line from San Francisco to Sacramento, west of the Sierra Nevada range, and south of the Oregon border.
This is not arranged by flower color. The author explains: “In short, dear reader, you may find it hard to identify all the plants you encounter in northern California, and you certainly won’t find every one in this book. By organizing the book according to families, though, rather than flower color, I hope to help you at least to place many plants not included here in their correct family or genus.”
Without a field test, I can’t comment on this approach for identification, but I did find it effective for reading through the book, allowing me to concentrate on all the species in a single genus. For example, being able to read about all the monkey flowers (Mimulus species), in their wide array of colors, in one place gave me a greater appreciation for the genus that includes annuals, perennials, or even shrubs. The writing is very engaging, although I did balk at Rhododendron macrophyllum, the state flower of Washington, being called a “California Rhododendron.” Harrumph!
Excerpted from the Summer 2019 Arboretum Bulletin.