The second edition of The Jepson Manual thoroughly updates this acclaimed work, the single most comprehensive resource on California's amazingly diverse flora. Integrating the latest science with the results of intensive fieldwork, institutional collaboration, and the efforts of hundreds of contributing authors, this new edition is an essential reference on California's native and naturalized vascular plants.

This edition includes treatments of many newly described or discovered taxa and recently introduced plants, and it reflects major improvements in plant taxonomy. Nearly two-thirds of the 7,600 species, subspecies, and varieties that the volume describes are now illustrated with diagnostic drawings. Geographic distributions, elevation ranges, flowering times, nomenclature, and the status of non-natives and native taxa of special concern have all been updated throughout. The second edition also allows for identification of 240 alien taxa that are not fully naturalized and features a new chapter on geologic, climatic, and vegetation history of California.