Spring Wildflowers

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This guide has one major shortcoming: it is printed in black and white.
Since the most obvious characteristic of flowers is their color, and
since guides with color plates are readily available, this
characteristic will undoubtedly work against what is otherwise an
excellent field guide.

The guide is organized in layers. The first point of access is
subseason: early, mid-, or late spring. Within these three groupings
there are at least four further layers. After subseason, the next choice
to make is woody or nonwoody plant. With this layer answered, the next
decision is catkin or noncatkin flower—or, in the case of nonwoody
plants, monocot or dicot. Then comes irregular or regular flowers, and,
finally, color.

This step-by-step identification system is quite easy to follow, as
definitions and a detailed example are given to introduce the concept.
People new to “botanizing” will find it excellent training: their
accuracy rate in making identifications will improve dramatically in a
very short time. More experienced naturalists who do not need to start
at step one for every plant will find that the lack of visual divisions
in the book slows down access to plants with specific features.

The generous use of clear, accurate line drawings helps to confirm the
identification and make a final determination between very similar
plants, such as woodland and wild strawberry.

Although the wildflowers included are those found in Nova Scotia and
northern New England, the widespread distribution of many of the plants
is such that readers anywhere in Canada will find a significant
percentage of the guide useful.