This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

California’s unique plants range in size from the stately Coast Redwoods to the minute belly plants of the southern deserts and in age from the four-thousand year-old Bristlecone Pines to ephemeral annuals whose life span can be counted in weeks. Available at last in a thoroughly updated and revised edition, this popular book is the only concise overview of the state’s remarkable flora, its plant communities, and the environmental factors that shape them. * 188 color photographs illustrate plants and typical plant communities around the state * New chapters give expanded discussions of the evolution of the California landscape, recent changes in California's flora, and more * Introduces basic concepts of plant taxonomy and plant ecology through clear examples and covers topics such as soil, climate, and geography