In nature, harsh environments commonly yield great beauty. Such is the case along the Pacific Northwest, where flowering plants lend brilliant color to expanses of shifting sand, windswept bluffs, and fog-shrouded forests. Coastal Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest introduces seaside visitors and residents to 164 common wildflowers and flowering shrubs of the rugged Pacific shore from southern British Columbia to Mendocino, California.This field guide is organized according to five habitats: beaches and dunes, wetlands, cliffs and grasslands, brushfields, and coastal forests. Within the habitat sections, superb color photographs illustrate nontechnical descriptions of each plant's physical characteristics, historical uses, flowering period, and distribution. A special discussion of wildflower photography offers tips for camera-toting flower hunters. An illustrated glossary and references provide additional information for neophyte naturalists. With Coastal Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, wildflower enthusiasts will learn to recognize individual plants and begin to know--and look for--entire plant communities. - from Amzon