Flowers of the Wild: Ontario and the Great Lakes Region

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer and the co-author of Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian
Garden Writing.

Zile Zichmanis, an artist and photographer specializing in scientific illustration, has contributed to Nature Canada, The Ontario Naturalist, a New York Botanical Garden monograph, and Ontario Weeds (1976). James Hodgins, a biologist, photographer, wildlands proponent, and wildflower gardener, has written articles on botanical subjects for several natural history publications, and has compiled A Guide to the Literature on the Herbaceous Vascular Flora of Ontario (1978).

Their talents are combined in Flowers of the Wild, a 27 x 21 cm work whose graphic quality (fine overall design, clean page layout, informed drawings, eye-catching photographs), is well complemented by its consistently organized verbal presentation of scientific and just-plain-interesting information. The authors present this sampling (127) of Ontario’s 2,000 flowering plant species not as a field guide nor a flora nor a comprehensive reference work, but as a celebration of wild plants and a reminder of the need to protect those that remain. They succeed admirably.

Each species’ two-page treatment consists of a stylized pen-and-ink study opposite a column of text and a memorable colour image. Many, such as ox-eye daisy and Canada goldenrod, are wide-spread and familiar. A few, such as prairie smoke and yellow mandarin, are rare in Ontario. All receive equal time. Even weeds such as common plantain and dandelion are beautiful in Zichmanis’ illustrations, and useful, Hodgins explains, as wildlife food.

The text provides common name, family name, Latin binomial and its etymology, habitat and range, longevity, flowering time, basic identifying features, fruit, and height (in metric units). It frequently provides such additional information as the plant’s ecological role, its horticultural (in 58 cases) and other uses, its toxicity (where applicable), and its similarity to other species.

A glossary defines botanical terms used in the text. An unusual appendix lists Ojibway and French names of the plants. A final list of selected general references augments those cited in the text as pertaining to the species under discussion. Indices of scientific and common names help users refer to the body of the work, arranged alphabetically by common name.

Most of the photographs show the plants in typical habitats, often with closely associated species nearby. To readers not already familiar with the plants, a few scenes may confuse more than enlighten. That of blue vervain, for instance, also shows purple loosestrife, without making it clear which is blue vervain. That of Ohio spider-wort shows a clump growing from an asphalt laneway crack: not a typical habitat nor one that supports the note that “this species is rare in Canada.” These are minor defects. A more serious problem is that the book’s flimsy board covers cannot support the quality of its contents.