Describes more than sixty familiar American wildflowers and presents the stories behind their popular names.

This volume presents a detailed description of more than thirty-five wildflower species of the Northeast, describing their colors, habitats, range, pollination, history, cultural lore, medicinal uses, and literary and artistic references. The spring-blooming wildflowers looked at range from old favorites to lesser-known species. Featuring more than 500 full-color photos in large-sized format, the book delves deep into the life histories, lore, and cultural uses of more than 35 plant species. The narrative covers topics such as the naming of wildflowers; the reasons for taxonomic changes; pollination of flowers and dispersal of seeds; uses by Native Americans; related species in other parts of the world; herbivores, plant pathogens, and pests; medicinal uses; and wildflower references in history, literature, and art. The photos capture the beauty of these plants and also illustrate the concepts discussed in the text.

This highly entertaining reference book presents the popular lore, social history, and practical uses of nearly seven hundred native flowers.

Considered the first field guide to American wild flowers when first published in 1893, this revised and enlarged edition contains 156 plates and provides botanical details and lore for nearly five hundred flowering plants personally observed by the author in parts of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., along with a few found outside this range and east of Chicago. The listings are grouped by color of flower.

Now available in paperback, The Secrets of Wildflowers is destined to be an indispensable book for anyone who loves and admires the natural world. Few things in nature beautify the world more than wildflowers. Their countless colors and endless designs are found almost anywhere—from fields to woods, deserts to ponds, and even in junkyards, dumps, and cracks in the pavement. The Secrets of Wildflowers, Jack Sanders’s colorful tribute, is bursting with odd facts and wonderful superstitions about some of North America’s most beautiful and common plants. Reader's will find natural history, folklore, habitats, horticulture, ingenious uses past and present, origins of names, and even their literary pedigrees. Far richer and eminently more varied than any field guide, The Secrets of Wildflowers contains more than 100 species of North American wildflowers organized by blooming seasons. Wildflowers are not just pretty to look at; they are an essential part of our environment. How they grow and what they do are often overlooked, and how they have been used has largely been forgotten. They feed insects, birds, animals, and even humans. They hold and condition the soil, and they are used in modern medicines and natural remedies and appear throughout history in art and literature. The Secrets of Wildflowersprovides detailed information on more than one hundred representative species of North American wildflowers.

Publisher Description

A guide to the identification and cultivation of 200 wildflowers, with a color picture of each and information on planting, preserving, and pressing wildflowers.