Flower Finder: Identifying Wildflowers of the Midwest and Northeast (Nature Study Guides)

Watts, May Theilgaard

ISBN 10: 0912550430 ISBN 13: 9780912550435

Publisher: Nature Study Guild, 2025

Synopsis

Identify wildflowers east of the Rockies and north of the Smokies with this pocket-size guide.

Whether you’re hiking, camping, visiting a park, or in your backyard, you can appreciate and enjoy nature’s beautiful wildflowers! If you’re curious about the flowers that you encounter, then Flower Finder by May Theilgaard Watts is just what you need. With the handy, easy-to-use booklet, you can identify wildflowers of the central and northeastern United States.

The booklet provides a dichotomous key to identifying spring wildflowers and wildflower families. Simply answer a series of simple questions about the color, shape, and appearance of the plant. Along the way, May’s professional illustrations help to guide you to a positive identification.

This guide is applicable to the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Book Features:

• Step-by-step guide to identifying wildflowers
• More than 180 species
• Professional line illustrations with key markings for identification
• Small format that fits into a pocket or pack

About this title

About the Author

May Theilgaard Watts was an esteemed naturalist and celebrated ecologist, as well as a writer, poet, illustrator, and educator. She served as a naturalist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. She taught natural history classes and shared the stories written on the land by wind, rain, and fire; by animals and plants; by time; and by history. In 1963, she was credited with proposing a plan that would ultimately become the national rails-to-trails program. She was the author of such books as Reading the Landscape of America, Flower Finder, and Tree Finder, which has exceeded 150,000 copies sold. May passed away in 1975.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If the leaves are all basal, lip pink, fissured, it is Pink Lady’s-Slipper (Moccasin Flower) Cypripedium acaule

If there are stem leaves, go below to [Symbol]

[Symbol]

If lip is white, sepals and petals tapering; in bog or low meadow, it is Small White Lady’s-Slipper Cypripedium candidum

If lip is yellow, sepals and petals tapering, it is Yellow Lady’s-Slipper Cypripedium calceolus

If lip is pink, sepals and petals blunt, broad, it is Showy Lady’s-Slipper Cypripedium reginae

Edition details

• Publisher: Nature Study Guild
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0912550430
• ISBN 13: 9780912550435
• Binding: Staple Bound
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 64