The Jepson Desert Manual

In the spirit of the avid desert botanist Willis Linn Jepson, The Jepson Desert Manual provides botanical enthusiasts of all backgrounds with the first comprehensive field guide focused exclusively on native and naturalized vascular plants of California's southeastern deserts. Based on The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California, the Desert Manual incorporates new illustrations for more than two hundred desert taxa, revised keys to identification, updated distributional information, and 128 color photographs. This guide will allow easier identification of California's fascinating desert plants than would be possible in a manual with broader geographic coverage.

As in The Jepson Manual, detailed descriptions and illustrations of plant characteristics are provided, along with information on native versus alien status, habitats, elevation, endangerment, toxicity, weed status, horticultural requirements, and flowering times. Introductory sections on the desert setting and vegetation offer the reader a broad context and new perspectives for appreciating the more than twenty five hundred plant species included in the Manual. For amateur and professional botanists alike, the Desert Manual will prove to be an invaluable companion in California's spectacular Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, and southern Great Basin environments, including the White Mountains.

Bruce G. Baldwin is Curator of the Jepson Herbarium and Associate Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Steve Boyd is Curator of the Herbarium, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. Barbara J. Ertter is Administrative Curator and Curator of Western North American Flora, University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley. Robert W. Patterson is Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University. Thomas J. Rosatti is Museum Scientist at the University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley. Dieter H. Wilken is Vice-President, Programs and Collections at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Margriet Wetherwax is a Museum Scientist at the Jepson Herbarium.