California's fading wildflowers : lost legacy and biological invasions / Richard A. Minnich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minnich, Richard A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biological invasions--California.

Biological invasions.

Plant invasions--California.

Plant invasions.

Wild flowers--California.

Wild flowers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Early Spanish explorers in the late eighteenth century found springtime California covered with spectacular carpets of wildflowers from San Francisco to San Diego. Yet today, invading plant species have devastated this nearly forgotten botanical heritage. In this lively, vividly detailed work, Richard A. Minnich synthesizes a unique and wide-ranging array of sources-from the historic accounts of those early explorers to the writings of early American botanists in the nineteenth century, newspaper accounts in the twentieth century, and modern ecological theory-to give the most comprehensive historical analysis available of the dramatic transformation of California's wildflower prairies. At the same time, his groundbreaking book challenges much current thinking on the subject, critically evaluating the hypothesis that perennial bunchgrasses were once a dominant feature of California's landscape and instead arguing that wildflowers filled this role. As he examines the changes in the state's landscape over the past three centuries, Minnich brings new perspectives to topics including restoration ecology, conservation, and fire management in a book that will change our of view of native California.

Contents:

The golden state

Pre-Hispanic herbaceous vegetation

Invasion of Franciscan annuals, grazing and California pasture in the nineteenth century

A century for bromes and the fading of California wildflowers

Lessons from the Rose Parade

App.1. Location of Franciscan campsites, Franciscan place names, and modern place names

App.2. Spanish plant names for California vegetation

App.3. Selected earliest botanical collections of exotic annual species in California

App.4. References to wildflowers in the Los Angeles Times, The Desert magazine, and the Riverside Press Enterprise.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-336) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612359378

9781282359376

1282359371

9780520934337

0520934334

OCLC:

536166385