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I sometimes identify plants and unknowns in Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California. I'm not always successful:

• Mistakes
• Total

Favorite books:

• Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs by Oscar F. Clarke, Danielle Svehla, Greg Ballmer and Arlee Montalvo - Very well organized, really good local botany book. Extensive grasses and weed coverage.
• Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains by Robert L. Allen and Fred M. Roberts Jr. - Has very thorough coverage of most local flowers, probably the best local flower book! Have interacted with the authors, very nice people!
• Foraging Southern California by Douglas Kent - Great book for knowing what commonly found plants are edible. Very well structured, with deadly/toxic plants at the beginning.
• Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants by Lowell John Bean and Katherine Siva Saubel - Ethnobotany book on local plants. Very useful once familiar with scientific names for plants.

Plant Foraging Rules:

• Apical Dominance - Avoid taking the tops/tips of plants, go for older leaves, lower on the stem so the plant can keep growing.
• Lawn Weeds - Best revenge on lawn weeds is to eat them: Pepperweeds (Lepidium), Dandelions (Taraxacum)
• Non-Natives - Excellent trail snacks: Mallows (Malva), Wild Lettuce (Lactuca)
• Natives - Maybe flowers or leaves, when abundant: Wire Lettuce (Stephanomeria), Rafinesquia

Favorite Taxa

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