Wildflowers of the United States

Reference List for Ohio Wildflower Identification
Site	Description
The Native Plant Society of Northeastern Ohio	From their website: Our mission is to promote the study, appreciation, and conservation of native plants and plant communities of Ohio. The NPS of NE Ohio is one of several chapters of the Ohio Native Plant Society. I was unable to find a website for the central organization, so I chose to use this one as representative.
The Natural Treasures of Ohio	This site is subtitled "A.L. Gibson Nature Photography Website", and is a blog, but Mr. Gibson has categories which make finding an article referencing a particular plant relatively easy if you know the scientific or common name. And when you get there, you get much more than his excellent photos. Definitely a site to visit regularly!
Northwest Ohio Wildflowers at Ohio-Nature.com	Jon Cross has organized the galleries of his large collection of wildflower thumbnail photos by color for easier identification. These are further separated by native / non-native status. He also identifies rare and endangered species found in NW Ohio. In some cases Jon provides additional information about a flower, but in most cases you can get only a larger version of the image, and the common name of the plant.
Flora by Max	PDF files containing information and photos about 147 different plant families, covering about 1,187 species and varieties. Generally there is a single PDF file for each family, although some of the families are so large Max has 2 or more PDF files to cover the family (Asteraceae has 10.) Max Brown has built an impressive botanical collection. He is an amateur botanist (a retired geologist) and so the information is presented using some pretty technical language, but if you know the family you're interested in, Max's site is worth the time for the visit.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin	Perhaps the most comprehensive native wildflower information site in the United States. "Discover more than 10,050 plants native to North America."
USDA Plants Database	Great resource for native plants! Their own description: "The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories." Provides these important (to me) pieces of info: 1) Listing by state and county within a state where specific species have been identified. 2) Scientific name synonyms are listed. 3) Scientific names are matched to a widely-used common name. 4) Photographs of many species. 5) State by state list of all the species identified in that state. Official Citation: USDA, NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 22 June 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Flicker Wildflower Field Guide, North America	Over 9,000 Flickr member photos tagged with wfgna. The WFGNA group has good tagging requirements for their excellent photos, so you'll find, in addtion to the photo, the state in which the photo was taken, and at least a common name and the scientific name as identified by the contributor. After you get to the linked page you should add search criteria, including the state name, the color of the plant, or scientific name, to reduce the number of photos. Several states have several hundred photos(California has over 1,500!) so you'll probably want to add color to the search criteria.
WildflowerSearch.com	Steven K. Sullivan has done a tremendous job of putting together a database and search engine to help in identifying wild plants. Not only can you search by plant scientific and common names, you can narrow the results using location (currently lower 48 states and parts of Canada and Mexico), flower shape, color, size, habitat, and observation time. His database currently includes over 7,000 plants. Definitely worth checking out.
Item at Amazon: Wildflowers of Ohio, Second Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	Wildflowers of Ohio by Robert L. Henn This second edition of the 1998 paperback by Robert L. Henn has an interesting format to assist in identifying wildflowers. It presents over 300 species of Ohio wildflowers, three to a page with descriptive information on each species on the opposite page. This looks like an excellent guide, and seems to be well-regarded. If I lived in Ohio I would own one.
Item at Amazon: Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians: 2nd Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	A product of the Tennessee Native Plant Society, this excellent and comprehensive field guide covers over 1250 species using 800 photographs and valuable descriptive text. While the focus is Tennessee, it's area of coverage includes the entire states of Kentucky and West Virginia, as well as large parts of 13 other states. In addition to the description of the plants it has an interesting look at botany from a historical perspective of the region. While the main part of the book is organized by plant family, there is a color-keyed section of thumbnails that allows a quick scan for identification, and there are illustrated keys for 12 of the families. This is my favorite wildflower identification book that I have, and I consider it a "must have" for wildflower enthusiasts in the region.
Wildflower Information.org	From the site: "WildflowerInformation.org is a resource for wildflower enthusiasts and gardeners. With a growing interest in the environment and natural gardening, our objective is to offer comprehensive information that is easy to use, and accessible for those from the casually interested to the expert." While this information doesn't appear to be on the website itself, WildflowerInformation.org seems to be owned by American Meadows, the "recommended wildflowers seed supplier" of WildflowerInformation.org.
Item at Amazon: Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States (Glassberg Field Guide) (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	This is a photographic field guide discussing more than 1,500 species of wildflowers found in the Northeastern United States. Plants are arranged arranged by flower color. Within color flowers with other similar attributes such as leaf arrangement and petal arrangement are grouped together. Based on the little bit I've been able to see of the book on Amazon, it appears to be pretty good, but it may have sparse supporting descriptions of the plants that are frequently needed if you want to identify to the species. It received good reviews (4+stars) on Amazon.
Item at Amazon: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers--E: Eastern Region - Revised Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	"...gives full descriptions of more than 650 species found east of the Rocky Mountains, along with notes on several hundred more. The eminently sensible organization relies on first-impression visible characteristics..." I use this guide frequently, and unless I have a good idea what family a flower is in, this is usually still my first stop. In my opinion, a must-have for beginning wildflower enthusiasts; augments more locale-specific wildflower references.

Looking for Wildflowers for a specific state? Check here: Number of References for Ohio: 13