"He started out in 1982 with a typewritten list of wild plants, then spent the intervening years visiting every park and wild area at different seasons of the year. Jacobson didn't stop with plants alive today; he also researched preserved plant specimens collected by 172 people, held at three herbaria. In this one hefty volume we have combined observations of botanists who surveyed the wild flora of Seattle over hundreds of years. With plentiful black-and-white line drawings, histories and colorful descriptions of hundreds of wild plants, Jacobson makes it easy for us to learn about the natural world growing all around us."
Valerie Easton in Pacific Northwest December 23 2001
www.seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/1223/plant.html |
"Although the book is broken down by the essential Latin genus and species categories, he gives us the good old common names and descriptions in everyday language. Almost every plant has a clear and useful line art illustration that shows us its unique features, and the descriptions are spiced with personal comments and neat stories. This is about as close to literature as a botanical work can be. Planned as a field guide, the book has a waterproof cover and nicely rounded corners so it can survive outdoors and fit into a pocket without damage."
Stephen Herold in The Seattle Press January 3 - January 16 2002 |
"It took me years to find out about the common plants I saw every day. It would have been a less arduous learning curve had I had a copy of Arthur Lee Jacobson's terrific new book. This hefty handbook is profusely illustrated with line drawings that greatly assist the rapid identification of wayside plants."
Ann Lovejoy in The Seattle P-I January 17 2002 |
"Every few years a garden book comes along that is a really important addition to my garden reference library. Such a book is Wild Plants of Greater Seattle, by Arthur Lee Jacobson., author of half a dozen excellent books. This, I believe, is his masterpiece."
Nancy Davidson Short in GroundWork March - April 2002 |
"Arthur Lee has done it again -- he's collected a mind-boggling and exhaustive body of research and delivered it to us in a useful manual that belongs on the shelves of gardeners, landscapers and nature-lovers."
Debra Prinzing in Garden Notes Winter 2002 |
"Arthur Lee Jacobson has produced a magnificent and indispensable guide to the flora of the central Puget Sound lowlands. Twelve years after his awe-inspiring Trees of Seattle (Sasquatch Books), Mr. Jacobson has extended his reach to embrace all wild vsacular plants from Lynnwood south to Kent and from Bainbridge Island east to the Sammamish Plateau."
Richard K. Robohm in Douglasia Spring 2002 |
"I've been waiting a long time for a book such as Wild Plants of Greater Seattle by Arthur Lee Jacobson. Until now, there hasn't been a comprehensive guidebook decsribing all of the species, native and otherwise, we are likely to see while walking through Seattle's parks, greenbelts, and untended places (including the corners of our own gardens). Wild Plants of Greater Seattle was worth the wait. This detailed work, offering a wealth of information in its 496 pages, includes 1,270 kinds of plants the author has observed growing wild in the Seattle area. Plants are listed in 10 categories, from Coniferous Evergreen Trees to Ferns and Horsetails."
Ray Larson in Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin Summer 2002 |
"Very nicely and thoroughly done, even with rounded book corners, which should be standard on guides of this sort."
Rudolf Schmid in Taxon August 2002 |
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