The Plants of Acadia National Park - Glen H. Mittelhauser, Linda L. Gregory, Sally C. Rooney, and Jill E. Weber (paperback)

This is hands down the most valuable resource for plant identification in the Acadia region and beyond. Prior to its release, tools for distinguishing between tricky plant species were only accessible to botanists who knew how to use terminology-heavy illustration-devoid dichotomous keys. Now, thanks to Glen and his team, ANYONE can use this book to put a name to the plants they discover. It begins with keys that use simple leaf and flower characters to guide you to the correct family, and from there, a rich array of photographs make it easy to spot the species of interest. Each of the 862 plant species include a description with emphasis on identifying characters, plus distribution, commonality, and habitat information. The setup of the guide also helps readers to learn plant families, which is really a prerequisite to being comfortable with genus and species ID. An extensive glossary elucidates botanical terminology using simple language. Although this book is written for Acadia National Park, it includes a significant portion of the plants you’ll encounter in New England. 542 pages.