Philip's Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe begins with a valuable introduction to wild flowers, with detailed text and artwork on structure, reproduction, life cycles, and helpful information on how best to approach finding and identifying wild flowers in the field.An illustrated key uses basic anatomical characteristics to aid identification of individual plants or family groups of plants. Having identified the individual or group, the reader is taken to the appropriate pages where further identification notes and full-colour illustrations indicate one specific species description.Each species description emphasizes the differences between closely related or similar-looking species, with the key features highlighted where appropriate. In addition, each description is formatted in a standardized way to make it easier to find facts and compare species. As well as comprising straightforward anatomical information on leaf shape, height, flower, colour, etc, there is also information on distribution, abundance and flowering time of each species. If the species occurs in Britain and Ireland, more specific localized information is provided.Accompanying each species description is a detailed colour artwork, annotated with key distinguishing features that will help the reader make a correct identification. To further aid identification, there are nearly 500 distribution maps showing the distribution of those species not usually found throughout the region.