From woodlands to wetlands and from roadsides to sandy beaches, Common Flowering Plants of the Northeast is a ready reference tool for identifying plants in their native habitat. It is a habitat-oriented guide to common flowering plants in the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada. Donald D. Cox skillfully integrates ecological and taxonomic information, impressing upon the user the often intimate relationship between the organism and its habitat. The information is presented in botanically accurate yet nontechnical language, making it useful to students of botany and ecology and to interested nonspecialists.

A unique feature of the guide is its treatment of the food, medicinal, and poisonous qualities of common plants. It also features a fully illustrated key for easily identifying the family to which a plant belongs, and more than 400 finely detailed line drawings to facilitate species identification. Each species is described with regard to origin, type of life cycle, method of pollination, method of seed dispersal, and value to wildlife as a food plant.