Many recreational hikers have stopped along the trail to admire a wildflower only to wonder what exactly they are looking at. Wildflowers of the Mountain West is a useful field guide that makes flower identification easy for the general outdoor enthusiast. Many available plant guides are too technical or cumbersome for non-specialists to embrace. Covering New Mexico Colorado Wyoming Idaho Utah Nevada and Oregon this book is perfect for the enthusiasts who has little botanical knowledge but would like to know more about the wildflowers they are seeing. Organized by flower color for easy reference plant records include the common and scientific names a description of typical characteristics habitat information and distribution maps look-alike species color photographs and informative commentary. In addition the book provides a useful introduction to the Mountain West region along with line drawings to illustrate basic flower parts shapes and arrangements; a glossary of common botanical terms; a quick search key; and an index. The book is spiral-bound making it easy to bring along while hiking backpacking or biking and stunning full color photographs make visual confirmation of flower type simple and straightforward.