Organized as a field guide, a literary anthology filled with classic and contemporary poems and essays inspired by wildflowers—perfect for writers, artists, and botanists alike.

“The collection as a whole reminds us how lucky we are to share the world with this variety of shape and color, and to open our eyes to what grows on the side of the highway, between cracks in the sidewalk, along the riverbank.” —Boston Globe

Winner of a 2023 American Horticultural Society Book Award

American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide collects poems, essays, and letters from the 1700s to the present that focus on wildflowers and their place in our culture and in the natural world. Editor Susan Barba has curated a selection of plants and texts that celebrate diversity: There are foreign-born writers writing about American plants and American writers on non-native plants. There are rural writers with deep regional knowledge and urban writers who are intimately acquainted with the nature in their neighborhoods. There are female writers, Black writers, gay writers, Indigenous writers. There are botanists like William Bartram, George Washington Carver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and horticultural writers like Neltje Blanchan and Eleanor Perényi. There are prose pieces by Aldo Leopold, Lydia Davis, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. And most of all, there are poems: from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams and T. S. Eliot to Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley, Lucille Clifton and Louise Glück, Natalie Diaz and Jericho Brown.

The book includes exquisite watercolors by National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Leanne Shapton throughout and is organized by species and botanical family—think of it as a field guide to the literary imagination.

A unique, stunningly illustrated exploration of North American wildflowers, weaving together history, folklore, and literature.

This beautiful coffee table book pairs the detailed botanical knowledge of a field guide with the evocative power of a literary anthology, offering a new way to appreciate the flora around us. Beyond being a simple identification guide, American Wildflowers is a rich journey through the history, cultural significance, and enduring beauty of the American landscape.

A perfect gift for anyone who seeks a deeper connection to the American landscape, this book is a winner of the American Horticultural Society Book Award.

Each entry is a meticulously crafted profile that includes:

• Striking, full-color botanical illustrations for accurate identification.
• Essential scientific and habitat information.
• Fascinating histories of medicinal, culinary, and decorative uses.
• Cultural folklore and myths associated with the species.
• Poetic and literary excerpts from naturalists, poets, and writers like Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, John Muir, and Mary Oliver, highlighting the plant's place in American consciousness.

Perfect for gardeners, nature lovers, hikers, and literature enthusiasts alike, this book celebrates the biodiversity of North America and shows how wildflowers have inspired-and continue to inspire-our greatest thinkers and artists.

With exquisite watercolors by National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Leanne Shapton throughout, editor Susan Barba has gathered insightful and meaningful writing from contributors including:

• botanists William Bartram, George Washington Carver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and horticultural writers Neltje Blanchan and Eleanor Perényi
• essayists Aldo Leopold, Lydia Davis, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil
• poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams and T. S. Eliot to Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley, Lucille Clifton and Louise Glück, Natalie Diaz and Jericho Brown