Plants of the Pacific Coast: From Alaska to Oregon Book Review

About the Book:

This long-awaited successor to the bestselling Plants of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest features over 700 trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns, horsetails and lycopods, of the north Pacific coast of North America.

The region, stretching from southeast Alaska to northwest Oregon, is characterized by humid forests, imposing mountains, muscular rivers, serene and stormy seas, and myriad islands, beaches, wetlands, and meadows.

Authors Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon, field botanists and forest ecologists with 50 years of experience in the region, are joined for this brand-new, fully updated field guide by two younger colleagues: ethnobotanist Styawat/Leigh Joseph, of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, and plant taxonomist Jamie Fenneman.

This user-friendly book focuses on the vascular plants--their identification, description, ecology, ethnobotany--of the coastal ecosystems of northwest North America. It describes the plants of the region's temperate rainforests, dry-belt lowland forests, cool subalpine forests, and non-forested habitats from tidewater to alpine, including some common introduced species. The species descriptions are packed with colour photos, range maps, and illustrations. This comprehensive guide includes up-to-date taxonomy, keys, hundreds of colour photos, ethnobotanical essays, and engaging notes. It will appeal to anyone interested in the region's rich and diverse plant life.

My Review:

I am an outdoor person living on an island in the Salish Sea and I found this book fascinating. I love all the photos and the maps identifying the places where each plant is found. There is a useful key at the beginning of each section to help find the appropriate plant description. There are great leaf structure diagrams too. Included in descriptions are warnings for poisonous plants as well as how to distinguish the particular plant from similar looking ones.

I spent hours going through the photos, seeing so many plants I remember from my hikes and wanderings. There was the Stinging Nettle, a plant I remember so well from encounters in my childhood. I like the additional information, such as dandelion is from the French dent-de-lion, or lion's tooth, for the leaf lobes. (350) A surprise for me was that a common weed I see so often in my own yard turned out to be Hairy Cat's Ear!

This is a very useful book for anyone who spends time outdoors in the Pacific Northwest coastal areas. You'll be introduced to vegetation from coastline to forest, from trees to common weeds.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

This book will not be released until June, 2026

Canadian Science Books, 536 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)