California has one of the most species rich moss floras in North America. During the last 50 years alone the checklist of California mosses has nearly doubled, yet the moss flora is seldom studied by botanists. The California Native Plant Society is proud to offer this color photographic guide as a portal into this truly remarkable group of plants. Designed to encourage both amateur and professional botanists to take up an interest in California’s mosses, this guide contains over 2,200 color photographs and 1,100 black and white drawings illustrating all but five of the state’s 600+ moss species.

Instead of relying on traditional “dichotomous keys” for species identification, this guide is organized by leaf shape and diagnostic traits so species are identified by pictures. Nearly half of the mosses currently documented for the state are presented with a color plate incorporating each of the 176 moss genera occurring in California. Of these genera, 79 are represented in California by a single species easily identified by use of this guide. For larger genera, several additional species plates are added to provide insights into the diversity of that group. Each full colored species plate also contains a text template containing information about the form, habitat, distribution, descriptive cellular features, and comments useful about each species to confirm identification. This indispensable guide not only incorporates the common species likely to be encountered in the field but also includes Pacific Coast endemics and species of conservation concern.

430 pages
6 x 8.75 inches, Hardcover
Micro-Optics Press, Nelson, New Zealand, 2009
ISBN 978-0-9582224-5-2