Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Monday - November 01, 2004

From: san diego, CA
Region: Southwest
Topic: Wildflowers
Title: Smarty Plants on books for Southwest New Mexico
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Which book would you reccommend for Native plants and flowers for Southwest New Mexico - Silver City area?

ANSWER:

There are lots of choices. Three suggested ones are:
1.Niehaus. T. 1998. Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers (Peterson Field Guide Series, 31) Houghton Mifflin Publisher. This book contains ~1500 species with descriptive text and line drawings with some in color. Flowers are grouped by color and plant characteristics.
2. West. S. 2000. Northern Chihuahuan Desert Wildflowers. Falcon Guide Series. Globe Pequot Publisher. Contains ~250 species with descriptive text and excellent color photographs.
3. Robertson, L. 1998. Southern Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Falcon Guide Series. Globe Pequot Publisher. Contains descriptions of ~200 plants with excellent color photographs. The area of New Mexico you mentioned is somewhat south of what is considered the Southern Rocky Mountains but the guide would no doubt be useful for identifying plants at higher elevations in the area.
You can read more about these at Barnes and Noble or Amazon. At Amazon you can "peek" inside the three books and see text and illustrations.
You might also like to visit the New Mexico Native Plant Society's web page for more information about New Mexico native plants. The three books listed above are for sale in their web page Bookstore with lists of other books dealing with regional native plants.

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Monday - November 01, 2004

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