Plants of the Pacific Coast is a stunning and comprehensive field guide, celebrating the extraordinary plant life of the north Pacific coast of North America. The long-awaited successor to the bestselling Plants of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, this new edition brings together decades of botanical expertise with fresh, contemporary insights, making it an essential companion for nature lovers, hikers, students, and anyone fascinated by the region's diverse ecosystems.

Written by renowned field botanists and forest ecologists Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon, who together bring 50 years of experience, this guide becomes even more enriching with the contributions of ethnobotanist Leigh Joseph (Styawat) of the Skwxwú7mesh Nation and plant taxonomist Jamie Fenneman. Their combined knowledge gives way to a field guide that is both scientifically robust and culturally meaningful.

Covering over 700 species of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns, horsetails, and lycopods, the book provides detailed identification tips, ecological descriptions, and interesting ethnobotanical insights. Each of the species entries is attractively enhanced with colour photographs, range maps, and useful illustrations to make this a very user-friendly guide for both advanced botanists and beginner enthusiasts.

This book is outstanding not only for its scientific accuracy but also for its reflective organization. Grouping plants first by life form, then by family, within sections entitled Trees, Shrubs, Wildflowers, Aquatics, Graminoids, and Ferns, allows one to easily locate and compare similar species side by side.

The introduction itself was very rich in providing an accessible overview of the physical environment of the Pacific Coast, biodiversity, climate change impacts, and the Indigenous plant knowledge. These essays further add depth and place, helping to contextualize these cultural relationships and traditional ecological practices with the region's flora.

Comprehensive, visually stunning, and deeply informative, Plants of the Pacific Coast is a must-have guide for any person eager to explore and understand the rich botanical heritage of this remarkable region.

Wow! What an informative book about PNW plants and trees. Loved all the colored photographs and maps. I can think of several people who will love to receive this as a gift.

I am an outdoor person living on an island in the Salish Sea and I found this book fascinating. I love all the photos and the maps identifying the places where each plant is found. There is a useful key at the beginning of each section to help find the appropriate plant description. There are great leaf structure diagrams too. Included in descriptions are warnings for poisonous plants as well as how to distinguish the particular plant from similar looking ones.

I spent hours going through the photos, seeing so many plants I remember from my hikes and wanderings. There was the Stinging Nettle, a plant I remember so well from encounters in my childhood. I like the additional information, such as dandelion is from the French dent-de-lion, or lion's tooth, for the leaf lobes. (350) A surprise for me was that a common weed I see so often in my own yard turned out to be Hairy Cat's Ear!

This is a very useful book for anyone who spends time outdoors in the Pacific Northwest coastal areas. You'll be introduced to vegetation from coastline to forest, from trees to common weeds.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

An amazing field guide that I already know is going to be a must have for anyone exploring the PNW!

The comprehensive introduction was informative and interesting and completely unexpected for a field guide. I really appreciated the ethnobotany section in the introduction and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge. This captured the beautiful relationship between humans and plants, emphasizing the deep respect the natural world deserves!

I can’t wait to bring this book on my next trip to the PNW!

I do not live along the Pacific coast, however, this would be the perfect book to bring if I were visiting the area.

The coloured pictures and plant descriptions are robust enough for keen plant enthusiasts but also accessible for beginners. I like the brief write-up at the beginning of the book on the area's geography and cultural history.

Overall, an excellent guide to learn about some of the common plants of the Pacific coast.

I don’t usually review guide books but I was curious about this when I saw it for download on Netgalley so I decided to give it a look. I’m glad I did because this was super interesting.

This is a rather extensive guide to plant life found on the Pacific Coast as the title says. There is so much info on each subject that I didn’t know before. The pictures/illustrations are beautiful to look at. You can tell this was super well researched when reading it.

This isn’t exactly the kind of book you would pick up just to read. It’s a reference material and a very good one at that. Overall I highly recommend this for people looking for this kind of resource.

Fabulous update to Plants of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Beautifully organized with photos, descriptions, distribution maps. Look forward to including the physical copy to my collection. Digital ARC was provided by Canadian Science Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.