“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall
Field Guide Reference List
Naturalists, Faye Stoner and Ron Gamble led an outing to Independence Lake Prairie on July 23, 2025. Here are Ron’s book suggestions for identifying native plants.
If you really want a book organized by flower color, I recommend:
Homoya, Michael and Scott Namestnick. 2022. Wildflowers of the Midwest. Timber Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-60469-907-7. 607pp. (Nicely priced on Amazon now)
Also by color, but names are outdated
Peterson, Roger Tory and Margaret McKenny. (1998 may be most recent). A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America. Houghton Mifflin. ≈420pp.
We have used this one maybe the most (especially Faye), organized by plant structure, (but don’t be scared, as one can quickly flip pages to find the most likely section) also outdated names:
Newcomb, Lawrence. 1977. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Little, Brown and Company. 490pp.
To begin learning common grasses and grass-like plants, this book we highly recommend and is great:
Lauren Brown and Ted Elliman. 2020. Grasses, Sedges, Rushes an Identification Guide. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-23677-4. 250pp. (Be certain you get the 2020 edition for the color photos)
If you get interested in identification, you’ll experience a huge new vocabulary of plant description terms. Unless you want to “google” each term; I highly recommend: Harris, James G. and Melinda Woolf Harris. 2001. Plant Identification Terminology, An Illustrated Glossary, 2nd edition. Spring Lake Publishing. ISBN 0-9640221-6-8 (paperback). 206pp.
Although beyond the scope of this walk, we would be remiss not to mention the public availability of Michigan Flora on the Web, https://michiganflora.net/ , where there are LOTS of photos for many plants! A resource like this to one’s specific area is a really great thing to have! You may be surprised to see how many Michigan species are present which are not included in the field guides. If you have a suspect identification for your plant, you can go to the website, and quickly look at photos and additional information that was not provided in general field guides. Don’t be scared to contact either of us if you want a little help getting started on this website. It is really easy to get started with a couple simple hints! With your tentative identification, you don’t need to get overwhelmed by complicated dichotomous keys to use this website for help, especially the photos.
Free Wild One Webinars
One of the ways Wild Ones seeks to accomplish our mission of promoting native plants and landscaping is by providing learning opportunities for both seasoned gardeners and those who are new to gardening and/or the native plant movement alike. All of these webinar opportunities offered by the National Organization are free and open to the public to view. The above link will connect you to all current webinars. Using the same link, you can also sign up for e-mails announcing future webinars.
How Native Cultivars Affect Pollinators
Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area Chapter President Robert Grese recommended this excellent talk by Annie White from the University of Vermont to the Rhode Island Native Plant Society on her research about native cultivars and pollinators.