NEW BOOK
Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast:
A Field Guide (to the Flora of the Future)
My book is all about how nature is adapting to climate change
I started writing this book in 2004 with the intention of helping my students identify the plants that grew spontaneously in Boston and it quickly expanded to cover the entire northeast. Now, some 16 years later, the species described in the book are becoming increasingly common as the impacts of climate change have become more pronounced. In a very real sense, my book has become a field guide to the flora of the future.
The book contains over 1,200 of my color photographs that capture 268 common urban plants at all stages of their development. The photos illustrate the habitats where these species typically grow and make it easy to identify them without the use of complicated keys. The jargon-free text describes the physical features of each plant, its ecological significance, and its relationship with people, including its cultural history and uses.
You can read the introduction to Wild Urban Plants on Amazon by clicking on the “Look inside” function of the Kindle edition.
Purchase The Book
You can get a copy of my book directly from Cornell University Press by clicking here. Use the discount code 09FORTY to get 40% off.
You can also order the book online from booksellers listed on www.bookfinder.com or from Amazon clicking here.
Download
Thumb through selected entries from the 1st edition of Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast (Arnoldia 68(1): 13-25, 2010) (PDF)
Here’s what reviewers said about the first edition of Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast
“This is a great resource for urbanites to experience the fascination, complexity, and beauty of the plants that grow around them.”
Joseph DiTomaso, author of Weeds of California and Weeds of the Northeast
“This field guide is useful for trained ecologists, botanists, and naturalists and is accessible to anyone else who wonders what is sprouting up from the sidewalk crack or in that corner of their suburban garden.”
Rhodora, the Journal of the New England Botanical Club
“Peter Del Tredici has written one of those rare books that completely overturns the way you look at the landscape—in this case, the landscape of the city’s derelict cracks and corners, which in his hands becomes a place of unusual interest, value, and beauty. Though ostensibly a field guide, this book is much more than that—it offers a deep and wise reconsideration of our most cherished idea about nature. You will never look at an “invasive species” the same way again.”
Michael Pollan, author of the Botany of Desire and numerous other best-selling books on food, nutrition and psychotropic drugs
"Peter Del Tredici provides a unique perspective on the plants we find in our increasingly urbanized environment of the twenty-first century. Rather than dismissing the nonnative plant species that have been introduced into our city habitats, he portrays them as immigrants with a history and life of their own adapting to roadsides and abandoned parking lots. Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast is a must-read if we are to understand and appreciate the world's exotic biodiversity."
W. John Kress, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
“The first time I opened this book I said to myself, “Wow—let’s put Peter Del Tredici in charge of all the plant field guides!” This is the weed id book I’ve always longed for.” C. L. Fornari, Coffee for Roses blog
Snippets from Amazon Reviews
“Del Tredici has belled the cat: instead of belaboring whether plants are native or invasive, good or evil, he has taken the unexpected leap of looking at urban plants scientifically. This is the best field guide I own.”
“Oh my god, this book is so fabulous. If you live in an urban area in the northeastern US and have even the slightest interest in nature/plants, you should get this book. I would give it six stars if I could.”
“This book was a perfect choice. It provides a range of photos for each plant, allowing someone with limited botany knowledge to identify plants by sight easily.”
“Oh how I wish I’d had this book 15 years ago when I moved from the desert Southwest to the Middle Atlantic! This book is wonderful.”
“It provides hope for those abandoned landscapes of our industrial past and illustrates well that when all is said and done, nature bats last.”
“This is a field guide with personality.”
“Never have I passed around a field guide and have had friends be so excited by it!”
Peter Del Tredici with one of his classes at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA. Photo by D. Foster