Field Guides to Sagebrush Country and American Deserts

Mountain Press has two books that serve as outstanding field guides to two specialized habitats. Ronald J. Taylor is the author of both books. The format of the books is nearly identical.

The first book, Sagebrush Country: A Wildlife Sanctuary, published in 1992, provides an introduction to the plants that inhabit Sagebrush country, found in the American West. This book identifies several life zones within the larger habitat and provides a listing of the plants that typically thrive in each zone. An understanding of each zone will give you an appreciation for the many adaptations plants possess to enable them to withstand everything from extreme heat to drought conditions. This introductory section includes with a discussion of how the various plants are pollinated. Some are adapted for insect pollination while others rely strictly on the wind. You could spend a lifetime studying the relationship between flowers and their pollinators. The author concludes with a short discussion of the animals that dwell in these habitats. Some are familiar to us because they thrive in many areas while others only live in sagebrush country.

The next section is a listing of the various plants found in sagebrush country. This section is organized by plant family. This method of arranging plant information has a major limitation. The book user must already know the plant family before knowing where to look in the book. For me, a book arranged by flower color would be easier to use in the field. I find the descriptions adequate but would like to see some basic cultivation information given for those who try to grow these plants in their home gardens.

I find the photographs used in this book and the one that follows are better than in many field guides. Why? They show the flowers close-up. Too many field guides present a picture of the plant that does not show the leaf and flower detail. This has frustrated me many times when using field guides.

Even the appendix contains much useful information. For those with a scientific bent, he included keys to identifying the plants. Pictures of flowers identifying their parts along with leaf types, and flower types is also included. The glossary will help everyone understand botanical terms used in the plant descriptions.

Desert Wildflowers of North America is copyrighted in 1998. As the name indicates, Taylor is describing plants found in several American deserts. You'll find introduction containing information on desert ecosystems. This information includes a discussion of precipitation levels, temperature ranges, types of soil, and wind patterns. Then the author discusses the different types of vegetation and their adaptations to the desert environment. Studying this section explained some of the things I observed in the Great Basin Desert during my years in Wyoming. It makes me wish I could explore several of the other American deserts too.

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