I was doing some cleaning up in my office this week and discovered just how many wildflower related books I’ve collected in the past few years.  Since I live on the east coast and do most of my photography here, my collection covers flowers in this area. Here are some of the general wildflower books and book covering the Washington DC area, New England and Florida wildflowers. I’ll have another post later in the week with my Southern Appalachian wildflower books.

Purple Coneflower (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

General Wildflower Identification Guides

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb. This is a classic guide to wildflower identification. By answering five questions about any flower, I can usually identify it pretty easily using my Newcomb’s Guide.

Wildflowers in Color by Arthur Stupka. Nice general guide with photos. It was the first one I found that was organized by color of the flower which makes it very useful when you are just starting out.

Wildflowers in the Field and Forest by Steven Clemants and Carol Gracie. Covers the Northeastern United States – from New England to Maryland to Illinois. Well organized, shows the geographic range for the wildflowers.

Atlantic Coastal Plain Wildflowers by Gil Nelson. Covers the coastal regions of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Northeastern Florida. Great specialized guide since many coastal wildflowers are different from the mountain wildflowers.

Bluebells by a Log (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Washington DC Area

Finding Wildflowers in the Washington-Baltimore Area by Cristol Fleming, Marion Blois Lobstein and Barbara Tufty. Great book if you live in the DC area – organized by county, the book describes what flower you are likely to find at various times of the year in the area.

An Illustrated Guide to Eastern Woodland Wildflowers & Trees: 350 Plants Observed at Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland by Melanie Choukas-Bradley. Fantastic book for those of us in the DC area – a great guide to a local spot with wonderful wildflowers.

Blue Flag Iris (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Florida

Everglades Wildflowers by Roger L Hammer. Great guide to wildflowers of the Everglades and other south Florida wilderness areas including Big Cypress and Corkscrew Swamps. Organized by color of the flowers, this one was very helpful for identifying some of the native orchids I saw earlier this year.

Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities by Walter Kingsley Taylor. Wildflowers in this book are grouped by their natural Florida habitats, which is very helpful when photographing several wildflowers growing in close proximity. Each description lists which counties in Florida the wildflower can be found in.

Bird’s-Foot Trefoil (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

New England

Wildflowers of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont by Alan E Bessette, Arleen Rainis Bessette, William K. Chapman and Valerie Conley Chapman. Organized by color of the flowers, this one was invaluble on my recent trip to Maine. The northern wildflowers are different enough from the ones that I find in the Washington DC area and further south, that if I hadn’t had this book with me, I still might not have identified some of the flowers I photographed.