More than a field guide, ""Mountain Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies"" offers cultural and botanical essays that present useful and fascinating facts about seventy-five species of wildflowers, including strategies for survival, plant evolution, origins of common and scientific plant names, family characteristics, and their roles in human history. The Laramie and Medicine Bow Mountains of southern Wyoming, the principal ranges in Colorado, and the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez, and Sandia Mountains in New Mexico are home to over a thousand species of wildflowers. The striking samples included here were selected not only because they are characteristic of this region, but also because they have interesting stories to tell. Grouped by family and arranged in natural order, each featured profile is accompanied by a color photo and most include a drawing by wildflower artist Walter Graf.

This is a guide through the eco-regions and down the scenic byways of the state's natural world, from grasslands to mountains to deserts, focusing on some of the most interesting landscape features and the plants and wildlife found therein. The six eco-regions include the Chihuahuas Desert, bordering Mexico; the Great Basin Desert, spilling over from Nevada, Utah, and Arizona; the Great Plains Grassland covering the eastern prairies; the Great Basin Grassland occupying the middle Rio Grande Valley westward; the alpine Montane Forests of the Sangre de Cristo and Sandia mountains; and the Pinon-Juniper Woodlands scattered throughout the mountain bases. New Mexico is third among states of greatest natural diversity, exceeded only by Texas and California. The elevation ranges from 2,842 feet where the Pecos River flows out of New Mexico to 13,161 at the snowy summit Wheeler Peak. A gamut of geological substrates and soil types provide a wide range of growing conditions for plants. More than nine-tenths of New Mexico's land remains in native or near-native condition, unchanged by human hands. This "living landscape" is wonderfully varied, ranging from vast rose-colored deserts that contrast with expanses of native grasslands; endless mesas and escarpments, fresh black lava flows, river valleys and rugged mountains. This colourfully illustrated book provides readers with an understanding of the natural elements that define the environments of New Mexico and directs road travellers to some of their more interesting features.

This survey of the history of livestock in New Mexico is the first of its kind, going beyond cowboy culture to examine the ways Spaniards, Indians, and Anglos used domestic animals and how those uses affected the region's landscapes and cultures. Dunmire mines the observations of travelers and the work of earlier historians and other scholars to provide a history of livestock in New Mexico from 1540 to the present. He includes general background on animal domestication in the Old World and the New during pre-Columbian times, along with specific information on each of the six livestock species brought to New Mexico by the early Spanish colonists.

"Gardens of New Spain is certainly approachable by gardeners, cooks, and amateurs of Southwestern studies as well as professional historians...it is an important addition to the sparse literature in English on the Old Southwest in the colonial era." -- Sixteenth Century Journal "This scholarly document will be as enduring as the plants upon which it focuses and will reach a wide public audience because of its writing style." -- New Mexico Historical Review "With a light hand, William Dunmire traces the fascinating journeys of plants-- from the gardens of the Alhambra, to the floating gardens of Xochimilco, to the sunken gardens of California's Mission San Luis Rey, and to all points in between. Deeply learned, with splendid maps, illustrations, and tables, this is an invaluable reference, but it is also a delight to read." -- David Weber, Robert and Nancy Dedman Professor of History and Director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University

When the Spanish began colonizing the Americas in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they brought with them the plants and foods of their homeland-- wheat, melons, grapes, vegetables, and every kind of Mediterranean fruit. Missionaries and colonists introduced these plants to the native peoples of Mexico and the American Southwest, where they became staple crops alongside the corn, beans, and squash that had traditionally sustained the original Americans. This intermingling of Old and New World plants and foods was one of the most significant fusions in the history of international cuisine and gave rise to many of the foods that we so enjoy today.

Gardens of New Spain tellsthe fascinating story of the diffusion of plants, gardens, agriculture, and cuisine from late medieval Spain to the colonial frontier of Hispanic America. Beginning in the Old World, William Dunmire describes how Spain came to adopt plants and their foods from the Fertile Crescent, Asia, and Africa. Crossing the Atlantic, he first examines the agricultural scene of Pre-Columbian Mexico and the Southwest. Then he traces the spread of plants and foods introduced from the Mediterranean to Spain's settlements in Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. In lively prose, Dunmire tells stories of the settlers, missionaries, and natives who blended their growing and eating practices into regional plantways and cuisines that live on today in every corner of America.