A Hiker's Guide to Trailside Plants in Hawaii

This is a good book to take along on hikes. Slim and lightweight but packs a lot. Easy to navigate on the go with multiple indexes. Pictures are clear enough for field comparisons and each entry has a really good amount of info considering the size of the book. Great buy

I have this book within reach on my side table right now, as I refer to it often. The reason I did not give it 5 stars is that the photos have no reliable size reference on them. I would have liked to see several photos of each plant, because you don't always see the flower or the fruit or a typical specimen.That being said, it's a good guide. A great guide would be huge, and cumbersome to pack and carry. This seems a good mix between enough information and a coffee table book. The photos are nice and typical, just keep in mind that if the book says something is usually this height and width, you may not be looking at one of the usual ones.I wouldn't carry the coffee table reference book on a walk or hike or drive, so this one is fine. Take photos of the things you don't find in this and refer to a more exhaustive book later.

I used this book while hiking around Oahu and Hawaii, and it helped me identify and learn about a number of the unusual plants on these islands. The author knows the Hawaiian flora quite well, and I really liked his descriptions of native medicinal or food usage of many plants. It was also very interesting for me to learn which plants are native to the Hawaiian islands, which were introduced by the Polynesians and which by the Europeans.The weakness of the book are, unfortunately, the pictures, which are very often too small and not always of good quality. It would make sense to increase them in size in a future edition, and to add additional ones per species, such as a close up of the leaves and a panoramic view of a tree. This would really help the hiker hoping to find out what plant he is looking at.

I definitely enjoy this book however the organization is by climate zones rather than plant type (meaning vine, tree, shrub, etc) so I found it more difficult to locate plants at first. I love the information though. The author includes a lot about the history of the plant, whether native or introduced, and its uses. I was very glad to have it with me on my journey.

If you get one plant book to use in Hawaii, this is the one..trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses... tons of info in a portable book.. took it out of the library for weeks, along with many others, but this is one of the few i went on to buy..

John Hall did an amazing job of compiling and describing these Island “gems”. Well done John!

There are no description about fllower seson at all.

Great book, very comprehensive. Although the book appears small, it is packed full with hundreds of different types of plants, shrubs, trees and herbs.