Plants of San Luis Obispo

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Plants of San Luis Obispo imparts the story of the areas botanical wonders in the format of an easy-to-read natural history guidebook. This part of California boasts an impressive diversity of plants, with more than 1,300 different native species (more than in the entire state of Alaska) and countless other introduced weeds and horticultural plants. The book vividly portrays the beauty, diversity, and history of the abundant and widespread wild and weedy plants in the area surrounding the city of San Luis Obispo and western portions of the California Central Coast. Matt Ritters succinct, non-technical prose is richly illustrated with the authors photographs of landscapes, plants, and flowers. Over 150 full-color pages describe the habitat, botany, ecology, edible or medicinal properties, uses by Native Americans, etymology, and gardening uses of more than 200 plants. Encyclopedic in scope and full ofinteresting facts and stories, this comprehensive naturalists guide is a wonderful overview of a historically and botanically rich area.

Product Information

Plants of San Luis Obispo, Their Lives and Stories

by Matt Ritter

Paperback; Publication Date: August 30, 2008

About the Author

Matt Ritter studies cultivated trees and trees that escape cultivation.He has a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a Ph.D. in plant development biology. He is currently a botany professor in the biological sciences department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and director of the plant conservatory there. He has authored numerous scientific papers about plants and contributed to botanical references including the upcoming second edition of the Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California and the Flora of North America Project. He holds a Kenan Fellowship at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, is the Ray Collett Visiting Scholar at the UC Santa Cruz arboretum, teaches for the Organization of Tropical Studies in Costa Rica, and is the chair of the City of San Luis Obispo Tree Committee.
Matt Ritter also serves on the board of the California Native Plant Society, San Luis Obispo chapter, and is the author of A Californian’s Guide to the Trees Among Us.