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Plants of the Rocky Mountains
Linda J. Kershaw, Jim Pojar, and Andy MacKinnon

      Plants of the Rocky Mountains covers more than 1,300 species of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, grasses, ferns, mosses and lichens found throughout the Rockies, including Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta. It is best used in the mountains, and less applicable in the valleys and deserts. The book has simple keys that work for the beginner or professional botanist, and it makes a great local companion to Botany in a Day.

      The text includes notes about ecology, native uses, edibility and similar species. There are 900 small, but high-quality color photos and more than 700 line drawings. Quality paper and a rugged cover make this book ideal to pack along on a hike or camping trip. 384 Pages. Lone Pine Publishing. 1998. ISBN: 978-1551050881.

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Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains
By George W. Scotter with photography by Hälle Flygare
Review by Thomas J. Elpel

      It is often challenging to capture the distinguishing characteristics of a flower in a photograph, but the pictures in Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains are uncommonly good. This clarity makes the book exceptionally user-friendly.

      Ordinarily I recommend books that are organized by family, rather than by color, as companions to Botany in a Day, which greatly facilitates the process of plant identification. However, Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains seems to work well with its six color groupings, partly due to the fact that flowers are organized by family within those groupings.

      Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains is a revised and expanded edition of the 1986 book Wildflowers of the Canadian Rockies. The new edition covers more than 360 species, including many additional flowers that are found as far south as Colorado and New Mexico. While the book remains most applicable to British Columbia, Alberta, and Northern Montana, the real jewel for those of us who live farther south is to aid in the identification of our less common species. Northern wildflowers often grow in isolated alpine or damp forest niches farther south, so this book is a great compliment to other field guides that focus on more abundant species of the central and southern Rockies. Whitecap Books. 2007. ISBN: 978-1-55285-848-6.

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Trees of the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain West
By George A. Petrides. Illustrations by Olivia Petrides
Review by Thomas J. Elpel

      Trees of the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain West is an easy-to-use and comprehensive guide to trees and tall shrubs of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Arizona. Coverage is broad enough to be useful everywhere from the Mojave Desert to the forests of British Columbia, yet specific enough to avoid confusion. The keys are user-friendly and the illustrations are excellent.

      This is a pocket-sized guide that can be carried in the pack on any backcountry trip, or kept in the glove box for easy reference while on the road. Trees of the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain West greatly clears up the confusion between related trees or those of superficially similar experience, making it possible to identify trees with ease and confidence. I only wish the text included family names for each of the trees to simplify cross-referencing with Botany in a Day, however, the genus and species names are adequate to cross-reference via the index. 112 Pages. Stackpole Books. 2000, 2005. ISBN: 978-0811731683.

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A Rocky Mountain Lichen Primer
James N. Corbridge, Jr. and William A. Weber

      More than 15,000 species of lichens have been identified worldwide, in environments as diverse as tropical jungles, alpine tundra, and bare lava flows. Lichens have provided food, medicine, and dyes for people, as well as forage for many animals. Lichens grow slowly, and some are up to ten thousand years old.

      A Rocky Mountain Lichen Primer is an introduction and field guide to lichens in the Rocky Mountain region. It features seventy-two color plates picturing the most common and conspicuous species to be found in the mountains and foothills of the Rockies. This is a slim book, intended to aid in identification. Uses of the lichens are not covered in this text. Many of these lichens are also common in other geographic areas. Tailored to the novice, A Rocky Mountain Lichen Primer includes a brief description of each species to assist in identification, along with a general introduction to lichens and their structure. The book also includes a section on beginning a lichen collection. 47 pages. University of Colorado Press. 1998. ISBN: 978-08708149077.