Northwest Mountain Wildflowers Sampler app for iPhone and iPad

This is the free sample or light version of Northwest Mountain Wildflowers, the field guide app adapted by Daniel Mathews from his books Cascade-Olympic Natural History (originally published with the Audubon Society of Portland) and Rocky Mountain Natural History

The region covered stretches from Vancouver Island to Wyomings Wind River Range, and from the northern Oregon Coast Range to Jasper National Park.

Flowers arent just identified: youll find fascinating natural history, biographies of the naturalist-explorers the plants are named after, help with pronouncing and understanding the scientific names, and more. Heres some of what others have said about the two Natural History books:

"Not only informative, but literate and shrewd."
—Gary Snyder

“In the high country in summer it becomes a near-bible, opening a world that grows more mysterious and beautiful even as its grandeur is defined and its intricacies known.”
—David James Duncan

“As a park ranger I find myself reaching for it daily to answer questions. The writing is superb and one finds oneself reading it by a fire on a cold winter day just because.”
—Geordie Romer, back-country ranger, North Cascades N.P.

This app uses Earthrover Software’s field guide interface, which is easier to use and more stable than other iPhone field guides.
You can choose among several paths to your plant: just check off your location and then scroll through thumbnail photos by color; use flower structure and leaf features for a precise search; browse in the index, viewing your choice of common names, scientific names, or both mixed together; look for them by plant family; or enter keywords and let the app search for those. Search results are viewable both as a list of names and a screen of thumbnail photos.

The app resides in memory. Hey, when you’re off in the mountains you don’t want to be dependent on a signal, do you? But when you’re back on a network, you’ll find direct links from the species pages to unaffiliated online resources.

For many nature buffs, this guide covers a big enough range to encompass 95% of their wanderings, not just their top five day hikes. Yet the range is small enough for the guide to speak with a Northwest voice, from enough regional experience and familiarity to get the geographic details right. The Northwest is an ecological continuum; a majority of the species grow in at least 6 of the 7 states and provinces.

Look for the region’s woody plants to be covered soon in Northwest Mountain Trees and Shrubs.