"California's unique plants range in size from the stately coast redwoods to the minute belly plants of the southern deserts and in age from four-thousand-year-old bristlecone pines to ephemeral annuals whose life span can be counted in weeks. Available at last in a thoroughly updated and revised edition, this popular book is the only concise overview of the state's remarkable flora, its plant communities, and the environmental factors that shape them."--Jacket.