Yosemite Wildflowers

Fantastic app! I use it on my iPod (no cellular needed). So far it's been useful in the Tahoe Sierra, gold country foothills/American River area, and the Sutter Buttes. The keying-out by characteristics works great. No need to select every characteristic. More than one choice per characteristic will often work when it's not clear (e.g. pink or purple flower? The leaf shape?) . Note the dwindling number of ID possibilities as you choose characteristics, and when you get down to one or a few species, look at the excellent photos and line drawings to confirm what you've found. Another approach to ID is to type what you guess might be the common name or family in the search box and look at what pops up. Interesting tidbits about traditional uses, etc. are fun to read. This app has mostly replaced my having to carry field guide books and my pack is lighter. There have been just a few times when the guide let me down, but like I said, I haven't been using it in Yosemite. Totally worthwhile purchase! I wish there were a way to bookmark plants I've previously identified (or even to mark locations by GPS, if one had that capability), but those are just suggestions for future versions.

I'm not a real botanist but I do have some training in plant taxonomy and I'm a bit of a fanatic about photographing and identifying native wildflowers. I have six other wildflower apps, so I've seen a lot of the good and the bad, and this Yosemite wildflower app just blows the rest of them away completely. I really wish These authors could take over the other California wildflower apps and do them up right for us - I'd be in heaven if I had access to this good of a guide for the wildflowers of the California deserts, the central coast, or the northwestern part of the state.

I am no great expert on wildflowers and this will be a useful and stunning guide to allow me to appreciate the beauty that appears every spring. I know that any guide put together by Barry Breckling must be second to none!