Plant Resources
Plant Identification Guides
The majority of field or identification guides to mammals are only in print with just a few available for online licensing. Below are a few of the online options. For locating the print field guides, search the UC Davis Library Catalog using the following useful subject headings:
- Plants - California
- (Subject) Plants - identification AND (Subject) North America
- (Subject) Plants AND (Subject) Field Guides
As is seen above, field guides often have the Subject subheading/subcategory of “identification” which can be combined with a subject term you are interested in such as “mammal*”.
An excellent field guide series for California is published by the University of California Press and called the California Natural History Guides series.
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UC Library Search
Sign in (via top right corner) with your UC Davis login for full access to available features, including loan periods, online book renewals, and the ability to request items that are in storage or checked out to another borrower.
- Field Guide to Grasses of California2014. James P. Smith. This field guide includes “ … more than 300 species of native California grasses and they are found in almost every climate-from cool, wet forests to hot, dry deserts. Native grasses are also important to land restoration as they improve soil quality, increase water infiltration, and recycle nutrients. Their deep roots can tap soil water, which allows them to stay green year-round and to act as fire buffers around residences. Native grasses also provide vital habitat for many species of insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals. Despite their importance, grasslands remain one of the most under protected of California's vegetation types, and native grasslands have undergone the greatest percentage loss of any habitat type in the state. Grasses are also among the most difficult plants to identify. Organized alphabetically, Field Guide to Grasses of California covers common native and naturalized grasses and, to help identify them, also features over 180 color illustrations.”
- Introduction to California Soils and Plants2020. Arthur E. Kruckeberg. “
Carnivorous pitcher plants, pygmy conifers, and the Tiburon jewel flower, restricted to a small patch of serpentine soil on Tiburon Peninsula in Marin County, are just a few of California's many amazing endemic plants-species that are unique to particular locales. California boasts an abundance of endemic plants precisely because it also boasts the richest geologic diversity of any place in North America, perhaps in the world. In lively prose, Arthur Kruckeberg gives a geologic travelogue of California's unusual soils and land forms and their associated plants-including serpentines, carbonate rocks, salt marshes, salt flats, and vernal pools-demonstrating along the way how geology shapes plant life. Adding a fascinating chapter to the story of California's remarkable biodiversity, this accessible book also draws our attention to the pressing need for conservation of the state's many rare and fascinating plants and habitats. *148 outstanding, accurate photographs, more than 100 incolor, illustrate California's diverse flora *Covers a wide range of locations including the Channel Islands, the Central Valley, wetlands, bristlecone pine forests, and bogs and fens.”