Lanny’s Bookstore

Please see the Bibliography at the bottom of this page for a complete listing of recommended books. If you see any of interest, please make your purchases here to help sustain this website. Thanks!

A few of these books can be viewed and read at Google Books, although it can be cumbersome to move through the book that way. Most of these are more useful as a printed copy in your hand.

Books on both IDENTIFICATION AND USES of California Herbs:

 

 

 

Books on California Native Plant IDENTIFICATION ONLY:

Books on Uses of Herbs, including some California Native Plants

Books on Natural Health, including Uses of Herbs

 Books on the Chumash

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS THAT INCLUDE BOTH IDENTIFICATION AND USES OF CA HERBS

Balls, Edward K.  Early Uses of California Plants.  California Natural History Guides series. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1962.  103 pp.

Clarke, Charlotte Bringle.  Edible and Useful Plants of California. California Natural History Guides series. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977.  280 pp

Dale, Nancy.  Flowering Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California.  Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1985.  239 pp.

Foster, Steven, and Hobbs, Christopher. Peterson Field Guide to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 448 pp.

Garcia, Cecilia, and Adams, James D., Jr. Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West. La Crescenta, CA: Abedus Press, 2009. 254 pp.

Kirk, Donald R.  Wild Edible Plants of the Western United States.   Healdsburg, CA:  Naturegraph Publishers, 1970.  307 pp.

Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1979. 200 pp.

Moore, Michael.  Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West.  Santa Fe, NM: Red Crane Books, 1993.  359 pp.

Murphey, Edith Van Allen. Indian Uses of Native Plants.  Ukiah, CA: Mendocino County Historical Society, 1959.  81 pp.

Nyerges, Christopher. Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 1999. 288 pp.

Sweet, Muriel.  Common Edible and Useful Plants of the West.  Healdsburg, CA: Naturegraph Publishers, 1962.  64 pp.

Tilford, Gregory L. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West.  Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1997.  64 pp.

Westrich, LoLo.  California Herbal Remedies.  Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing, 1989.  180 pp.

 

BOOKS ON CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT IDENTIFICATION

Belzer, Thomas J.  Roadside Plants of Southern California.  Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1984. 158 pp.

Coate, Barrie D. and Dennis White. Selected California Native Plants in Color. Saratoga, CA: Saratoga Horticultural Foundation, 1980. 120 pp. (Out-of-print but available used. Color plates and info about garden cultivation.)

Collins, Barbara J.  Key to Coastal and Chaparral Flowering Plants of Southern California.  Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1985.  316 pp. See also Trees and Wildflowers of the Mountains of Southern California by the same author. (See link to her website.)

Farrell, Jack. Selected California Native Plants. Ventura, CA. Self-published. Illustrations by Don Seguine. 89 pp. (Written as a manual for his classes at Ventura College, it is long out-of-print but available used. Contains extensive hard-to-find info on cultivation.)

Keator, Glenn, Ph.D. Pacific Coast Berry Finder: A Pocket Manual for Identifying Native Plant with Fleshy Fruits. Rochester, NY: Nature Study Guild Publishers, 1978. 62 pp.

Keil, David J., Ph.D., editor. Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo, California. San Luis Obispo, CA: City of San Luis Obispo and the San Luis Obispo Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. 86 pp. (This fine little book has great photos and is available only from this link: Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo, California)

McAuley, Milt.  Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains.  Canyon Publishing Co., Canoga Park, 1996. 575 pp. (This is more comprehensive than Dale’s book, and it includes both colored photos and pen and ink sketches of most plants.)

Munz, Philip A.  A Flora of Southern California.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974.  1086 pp.

Smith, Clifton F.  A Flora of the Santa Barbara Region, California.  Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 1976.  331 pp.

Watts, Tom. Pacific Coast Tree Finder: A Pocket Manual for Identifying Pacific Coast Trees. Nature Study Guild Publishers, Second Edition, 2004. 64 pp.

 

BOOKS ON USES OF HERBS, INCLUDING SOME CALIFORNIA NATIVES

Heinerman, John.  First Aid With Herbs.   (Good Health Guides series)  New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1983.  26 pp.

Holmes, Peter.  The Energetics of Western Herbs: Integrating Western and Oriental Herbal Medicine Traditions.  (Two volumes) Boulder, CO: Artemis Press, 1989. 1203 pp.

McQuade Crawford, Amanda. Herbal Remedies for Women. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1997. 304 pp.

McQuade Crawford, Amanda. The Natural Menopause Handbook: Herbs, Nutrition, & Other Natural Therapies. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2009. 208 pp.

Tierra, Michael.  Planetary Herbology.  Santa Fe, NM: Lotus Press, 1988.  485 pp.

Tierra, Michael. The Way of Herbs.  Santa Cruz, CA: Unity Press, 1980.  216 pp.

 

BOOKS ON THE CHUMASH

Blackburn, Thomas. December’s Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1975.  360 pp. (Stories collected by J.P. Harrington; edited, with an Analysis, by the author)

California’s Chumash Indians. A Project of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Education Center.  San Luis Obispo, CA: EZ Nature Books, 1990.  71 pp.

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The Chumash People: Materials for Teachers and Students [Spiral-Bound]. San Luis Obispo, CA: EZ Nature Books, 1991.  90 pp.

Timbrook, Jan. Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People of Southern California. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2007. 271 pp.

Walker, Philip L. and Hudson, Travis.  Chumash Healing.  Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press, 1993.  161 pp.

Wood, Audrey. The Rainbow Bridge. San Diego, CA: Voyager Books, 1995. 32 pp. (Beautifully illustrated children’s book based on the Chumash creation legend with some embellishment by the author. A portion of the royalties from the sale of “The Rainbow Bridge” will be donated by the author for the further preservation and understanding of the Chumash culture.)