Weeds of the West

Weeds of the West
by the Western Society of Weed Science
(Whitson, Burrill, Dewey, Cudney, Nelson, Lee, Parker)

This is one of my favorite field guides because it covers plants that don’t have showy flowers and are considered noxious weeds.  It is grouped by families with beautiful color pictures and excellent botanical descriptions.  It allows you to see family structures and patterns very clearly.  Even though it’s directed at Western weeds, many of these weeds are also found in the Eastern United States.  It contains little information on the uses of plants, but has helped me identify many species that other books didn’t. I found some guides that appear to be similar for other regions of the country on Amazon, which are also listed below.