Best flowers in biological sciences books according to redditors

I love the Falcon Guides for wildflowers

Southern California Mountains Wildflowers

Mojave Desert Wildflowers

This book is stupid but very useful. It is just drawings of foot prints and poop.
Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest

Another stupid simple book. This time it is an animal next to the hole it makes.
A Field Guide to Desert Holes

I'm glad you asked! I love learning what things are, so I'm happy to share. This should be apparent by the time I'm done with my data dump. First off, when in Alaska and where? That will depend on how useful some of these things are.

I use PeakFinder for mountain names. The desktop version is free, but the app is $4.99 and worth every penny. It will only show peaks, and not lakes, glaciers, or other formations. I use the Delorme Atlas for those. That's too unwieldy to take on hikes, though.

For birds, I know the President of the Anchorage Audubon Society uses iBird for an app, so that must be decent. There's a free demo version, but the full app is $14.99. For the Anchorage coastal area, I mostly use this checklist. If you can tell a duck from a sparrow, you can narrow down your bird substantially and use websites to find the right one. Although the list is specific to Anchorage, and results are very different in places like Seward or Fairbanks. If you're into bird identification, you'll get farther learning how a few birds sound rather than how they look.

The Eagle River Nature Center has a few events throughout the summer that help novices with identifying plants, birds, trees, and other animals. There are also guided bird walks at Potter Marsh and Campbell Creek Science Center throughout the summer.

For flowers, I'm not aware of any great apps. I do know of some good books. This is the best pocket-sized book for berries. This is my favorite for flowers. For all types of plants, this book is amazing. It's thick and heavy, so you won't be taking it hiking, but it's a wealth of information. Outside of Discovering Wild Plants, I would buy the other books used at Title Wave in Anchorage.

Trees are easy. I'm not sure you need an app. Here's a pamphlet from the Forest Service. Basically, if it looks like a Christmas tree it's probably a spruce. If it has big glossy leaves, it's a balsam poplar/black cottonwood. If it has smaller serrated leaves, it's probably a paper birch. That covers 90% of what you'll see in Alaska for trees. There are others like willows, alders, hemlock, tamarack, but the pamphlet can help with those.

There are subreddits specifically tailored to identify things like plants, birds, insects, trees, etc., so if you're stumped, take some pictures and post it online.

Many flowers with typically white petals will have pinkish variation, and vice versa. For instance if you've identifying a flower using a dichotomous key, like Gleason and Cronquist, one of last steps in the key will often say petals: white or pink.

I love reading this stuff too. I’m a very outdoorsy person. So, if you want a nice non portable book about trees, there’s the david allen Sisley guide to trees. For portable, there are a lot more. The Audubon book is good, it just hasn’t been updated in a longtime. The Peterson guide is more recent and is good also. I’ll try to think of the books we have. My mom has a lot and has ones from her parents too. One that’s good is the national wildlife federation book on wildflowers. A new book that cool is one called wildflowers of the Appalachian trail. On trees, I really like an old edition of the golden guide to trees that we have. The Audubon guide to eastern us trees is good. I think Peterson is better than Audubon though. There is also a forestry department book on trees of around here that I have from middle school. Don’t worry, I’ll provide links to these books.

https://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Guide-Trees-David-Allen/dp/037541519X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481660&sr=1-1&keywords=Sibley+trees

https://www.amazon.com/GOLDEN-GUIDE-Herbert-Alexander-Martin/dp/B000KIITZK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481704&sr=1-3&keywords=Golden+guide+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Eastern-Trees-Including/dp/0395904552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481730&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Society-Field-Guide-American/dp/0394507606/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481747&sr=1-1&keywords=Audubon+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Shenandoah-Valley-Ridge-Mountains/dp/0813908140/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-3&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Wildflowers/dp/0375402322/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-10&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Wildlife-Federation-Wildflowers-America/dp/1402741545/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481922&sr=1-2&keywords=national+wildlife+federation+field+guide

https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Field-Guide-Wildflowers-North-central/dp/0395911729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481968&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Appalachian-Trail-Leonard-Adkins/dp/1634040902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481991&sr=1-1&keywords=Wildflowers+of+the+Appalachian+trail

http://www.shopdgif.com/product.cfm?uid=2051408&context=&showInactive=N

I’m going to post again once I go look at our bookshelf. This was just off the top of my head. Oh and it’s not a field guide, but you should read a walk in the woods by bill bryson.

These two are specific to Mesembs, but are REALLY good:

http://www.vivante-passerelle.net/index.php/en/mickael-legrand/38-the-art-of-growing-mesembs

https://www.amazon.com/Mesembs-World-Illustrated-Remarkable-Succulent/dp/1875093133

Sending lots of love and light to you today. <3 It's been 8 months since my mom passed away, and there's a million things I loved about her. But one thing I'm most grateful for is her instilling a love and appreciation of nature in me. Especially since I can now find solace and peace in the outdoors when I'm feeling down and missing her. And it's something I'm able to pass down to my own children.

Here's a photo of her scouting out some mushrooms with my oldest daughter a few years ago.

Book: Field Guild to Wildflowers (a used copy is just fine!)

Hey Bean!

https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Vascular-Plants-Northeastern-Adjacent/dp/0893273651/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526956589&sr=1-2&keywords=Manual+Vascular+Plants+Northeastern+United+States+Adjacent+Canada

This one should cover that area pretty well, however it does require a certain level of understanding of botanical terminology. It has no pictures but is very usable once you get used to it and it is compact enough to be carried in the field, barely.
I would also recommend looking in new and used book stores for older more local guides. Don't forget a good hand lens too.

I think your best bet in that part of the country, and with your level of experience is to start with a basic field guide. Look for a field guide for wildflowers of the Eastern USA. Your local nature center, etc, may have recommendations or a wide selection for sale. A good field guide will cover upland and wetland plants.

If you google "flora of new jersey" it looks like there's a group that is organized trying to create a flora for that state, as well as a native plant society. Both of these would be good groups to get involved with. If you tell the native plant society that you're a high school student interested in botany, I'm almost certain they would waive the membership fees for you.

Once you get more advanced with your identification skills and terminology, Gleason and Cronquist's flora of the Eastern US is a great resource. http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Vascular-Plants-Northeastern-Adjacent/dp/0893273651 It goes out of print often, but a used copy is just as good and will save you some money. Unfortunately, it's not a text for beginners and you're better off working with a simpler book with photos or drawings first.

Awesome! One of my favorite books, pages 270-272. Yep. It's not listed in it for Harrison County either. You should send this find to Dr. Evans at Marshall. [email protected]

in the intermediate range (not as advanced as a Flora w/ keys, but better than most "pretty-picture" field guides)

http://www.kswildflower.org/ and book http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/hadwil.html
Falcon Guide: Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers http://www.amazon.com/Tallgrass-Prairie-Wildflowers-Midwest-Wildflower/dp/0762737441

have fun -- it's a neat place to visit

There's also this.

They can be fairly specific depending on how unique your environment is. This would probably be the book you would want. I want it and I'm nowhere near that area.

Edit: Latin would be great, but you could get away with just a Latin roots and combining forms book.

Hi, I graduated with a degree in Natural Resources a few years ago. Your basic 100 level courses are most likely going to be general science courses like Chemistry, Biology, and some math. Here are some of the books I used and enjoyed in my upper level courses, though you might not get into these for a few years yet: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, Evolution by Douglas Futuyma, The Economy of Nature by Robert Ricklefs, Introduction to Wildlife Management by Paul Krausman, The Origins of Modern Environmental Thought by J.E. de Steiguer.


I don't recommend you buy any of these textbooks, because your college probably will use different textbooks. Of course if you think they sound interesting or you find a cheap copy by all means go ahead, but many schools will use a slightly different version, or if your teacher is published, they may want to use their own books. I liked these ones and if you read it I'm sure you could learn a lot, but it might not all be relevant to what your current classes are.

Also I'm sure some of your books will depend on your part of the country, I went to school in the Southwest so many of my books are geared towards issues like water conservation and one of my favorite textbooks A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona, we also used Mammals of California, you might buy Mammals of North America and another local guide depending on where you are, I had to buy two (California and North America) for my mammalogy class.

I took a lot of elective biology classes for my general biology credits towards my degree. Your school may not have the same classes, or use the same textbook, or you may not be interested, but here are some other books I'd recommend. Most are 'fun' books and read more like a narrative and are normal book length instead of chapter books. You can learn from reading them but they are set out more like a story than a textbook crammed full of data. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, Alex & Me by Irene Pepperberg, The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey, Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem & Jonathan Prince, Evolutionary Medicine Edited by Trevathan, Smith, & McKenna, Endgame by Derrick Jensen, Why We Get Sick by Randolph Nesse & George Williams.

Anyway hope this was useful and you got some good ideas, feel free to ask me for further information about anything! I don't think you should worry about being the oldest kid in your class, there are plenty of older people there than you and I think having a bit of maturity will help in your studies. Good luck!

The Audubon Society has a number of field guides. I have the ones for Western and Eastern birds both (along with a couple others of theirs) since I live in Oklahoma, and I absolutely love them; they're small enough that I can fit 2-3 in my camera bag along with my camera and all it's gear- including extra lenses and the like... They're easily one of my favorite gifts I've been given.

I also recommend a cute, plain ruled notebook that she can write down her observations in; I have this one by Designworks Ink and I love the quality, but any hardcover journal like that would work- though I'd really recommend getting one with archival grade paper. It'll make sure the journal lasts for a while without yellowing, etc, if she wants to keep it around for a long while. (I do, personally; I love looking back at my observations from years ago).

No idea on binoculars, though, as I don't use them personally. But Audobon has guides for both Binoculars and Spotting Scopes. Those might help.