California's Fading Wildflowers

"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. Richard A. Minnich's vividly detailed story synthesizes a wide array of sources - from the historic accounts of those early explorers to the writings of nineteenth-century American botanists, twentieth-century newspaper accounts, and modern ecological theory - in a comprehensive historical analysis of this dramatic transformation of California's wildflower prairies. 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 and transforms our understanding of native California."--BOOK JACKET.