Botanica North America: The Illustrated Guide to Our Native Plants, Their Botany, History, and the Way They Have Shaped Our World

I am usually not impressed by "coffee table" books, but a few are much more than just pretty pictures. "Botanica North America" is just such a book. Well written by Canadian horticulturalist Marjorie Harris and lavishly illustrated with color photographs this is a delightful compendium of North American plant science and lore. The chapters are arranged primarily by region (with a few digressions) and a final chapter on the "Three Sisters"- Corn, beans and squash, plus a few other North American food plants. Each entry is readable independently of the others and each has some gems of information, plus occasional informed opinion by the author. None of the entries are dull in any way! In my examination I could find no major typos and almost every statement I checked out seemed to be accurate. This is not in any way a guide for identification, but it is a delight to read and peruse! I recommend it to all people interested in botany and/or gardening. It is well worth the price.

This book is a delightful ramble through a selection from the world of economically, historically, and medicinally important plants. As does a preceding reviewer, I dip into it frequently just for pleasure and to increase my general knowledge of how these plants have been useful to others, especially the indigenous population. It is NOT a guide to cultivation (William Cullina's wonderful pair of books on native plants offer that), or identification (Britton and Brown remains supreme), but a well-written survey of carefully chosen plants with interesting attributes other than their beauty, ease of cultivation or commercial availability. It's a book written by a plant lover for other plant lovers.

Botanica North America is a hefty tome at a little over 650 pages (and I?m guessing over 5 pounds), but the necessity of such a length is explained by the subtitle. Indeed, it would seem an overwhelming task to encapsulate in a book the history, botany, and traditional uses of North America?s native plants. Who would even dare try? We can thank Marjorie Harris. For this comprehensive volume, this prolific and admired Canadian author sought information and opinions from hundreds of experts throughout North America. The acknowledgments alone are over three, packed pages long, so we know that Harris consulted thousands of knowledgeable individuals, and she collected photographs from among the most talented artists on the continent. Throughout the book, Harris conveys a reverence for our natural world and the plants that inhabit it. She writes with an ecologist?s view, noting that ?If the point of this book is to honor native plants, it is also to honor their history, the secrets they have shared, the role they have played and must continue to play in the survival of our species. . . . We are the stewards of this land and if we do our best . . . to save as much of their habitat as possible, then we will be giving these plants the respect they deserve.? To organize such a daunting task, Harris divided North America into the following regions: the Eastern Forests (covering the Northeast and Southeast); Swamps and Wetlands; Florida; The Boreal Forest; The Prairie; The Desert; California; Montane; The Tall Trees; and The Tundra. The profile of each region begins with several pages of overview that introduce each area and capture its essence. Then Harris concentrates on the plants that are critical to the region and have been historically important to the human inhabitants. She organizes the plants by family, and each species she highlights is described through its botanical structure, ethnobotany, and natural history. One feature I especially appreciate is this book?s ?browsability.? I can pick it up just to admire the photos if I wish. Or I can thumb through, picking up captivating quotes by nature writers and early explorers, from William Bartram to Walt Whitman. Or I can browse the plant descriptions, learning fascinating tidbits of information. I have always wondered why the blooms of bluebells turn from pink to blue as they mature ? now I know. And I learned that Native Americans used the dogwood as an ?indicator plant,? timing their planting of corn to the blooming of the tree. I look forward to learning more about the secrets and history of our native plants as I continue to explore this extensively researched book. Botanica North America will not get stored on my bookshelf; rather it will stay at my fingertips, always ready to supply me with information or inspiration.

I bought Marjorie Harris' Botanica after reading gardening magazine reviews that this was the most comprehensive volume on native plants ever assembled. However I've already found about 6 native plants that I have that aren't listed and I'm sure there will be more as I make my way through the huge volume. That aside, the photography is very nice and the plant descriptions are thorough and informative. I especially liked how each of these plants were used by native peoples was included. This is definitely a keeper on my shelf but will be used as a companion with other books, rather than being the complete, one and only volume on native plants it claims to be.

This book is a departure for Canada?s best-known garden writer. The reviews I?ve read tend to give the impression that it is a gardening book, but it?s more of a venture into history, geography, botany and enthobotany, than horticulture. Information that gardeners depend on, such as hardiness zones of plants, isn?t there, but that doesn?t mean gardeners won?t be fascinated by this extensive exploration of North American native plants. The book offers photos and the stories of more than 420 plants?trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants?that grew in North America before Europeans arrived. The plants were selected because they are or were in some way valuable or important to people, whether native peoples or European settlers. At more than 650 pages, the book is extensive (it would have taken several volumes to encompass all the important plants). Still, there are some surprising omissions, for example, hickory, bitternut and pecan are included in the juglandaceae, but the ubiquitous black walnut isn?t. Organized geographically, the book ranges from the eastern forests to Florida, from the boreal forest to the prairies, the southern deserts to California and the Pacific Northwest. The northern tundra is included, as well as a chapter on the ?three sisters?, the agricultural plants aboriginal peoples cultivated, corn, squash and beans. Lush photographs accompany many of the entries, which provide essential information on each plant?s attributes and historical uses. Harris includes stories and quotations from early European plant enthusiasts who often courted hardship and danger to learn as much as they could about the new plants they were encountering. Many compelling stories come from these early observers and amateur botanists. Unfortunately, the publisher chose only to index plant names (common and botanical), and not the names of people. For example, I was hoping to find reference to Catharine Parr Traill, the sister of Susanna Moody (of Roughing it in the Bush fame), and the author of Canadian Wild Flowers (1868). As early as the mid-nineteenth century, Parr Traill regretted the almost wholesale destruction of the Canadian wilderness and its plants due to the onslaught of farmers clearing the land for crops and loggers harvesting timbers to ship to eager markets in Europe. Parr Traill is, in fact, quoted several times, but you won?t find her name in the index. Notes for each chapter do detail sources, but an alphabetical index would have made these names so much easier to find.Botanica North America isn?t a book you can read from cover to cover quickly?instead it?s one to keep on the coffee table or at the bedside table to savor and dip into over many weeks. Harris brings to our attention the enormous variability and richness of the North American landscape. One can?t help but come away with a sense of regret over how much was destroyed, both deliberately and by accident (and still is being ruined today as suburban sprawl continues to eat up the