Califlora: A Literary Field Guide

About this book

California plants range from microscopic mosses to giant sequoias from desert cacti to rain forest ferns from humble native grasses to flamboyant cultivated blossoms. With over six thousand species of astonishing variety what grist for the literary mill! Novelists poets farmers naturalists foragers botanists and mythmakers have long exulted in the Golden States variety and abundance creating a body of vibrant and surprising literature. Califlora is a playful literary exploration of the relationship between plant and human drawing from our best writers and thinkers. Some of the pieces expand like landscape paintings best viewed from a distance while others shine like exquisite miniatures curious and laid with sensuous detail. Mary Austins Sagebrush Country smells like desert rain Ina Coolbriths Copa De Oro blooms on a sunny hillside and T. C. Boyles Budding Prospects crack an echo through the meadow with a gunshot blast. Califlora encourages us to open the door unzip the tent and see whats out there book in hand or not. How better to breathe in Californias elemental richness and unmatched abundance?