A catalog by James P. Smith, Jr. and John O. Sawyer, Jr. 

Generous support for this book has been provided by the North Coast Chapter

This 272-page book provides a checklist of the native and naturalized vascular plants that occur in northwestern California. By vascular plants, we mean lycophytes (traditionally called fern allies), ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. Escaped ornamentals, plants growing at abandoned home sites, and crops are also included if they have become established and persist without our assistance. This is a more inclusive definition than the one used in the second edition of the Jepson Manual, which is the primary reason that we show many more plants as occurring in northwest California.

This catalogue documents the occurrence of 158 families, 901 genera, 3376 species, and 3811 taxa (subspecies and varieties) in the region. To provide some perspective, there are more vascular plant species in northwestern California than in 39 states!