Book excerpt: This book is filled with fascinating facts, recipes and stories about common plants found growing wild in northern California. Every vacant lot, park, open space and empty field contains some of the characters in this book.Get ready to meet a variety of common weeds with uncommon stories. There will be sinister plants with deadly reputations, and friendly vegetables disguised as weeds. Over fifty detailed drawings will help you to recognize some of the plant personalities. And this is important, because after reading you will want to get off that couch and meet these plants.These weeds grow all around, from Sacramento to San Francisco, Monterey to San Jose. we are surrounded by a silent plant community. Learn what it has to say to you between the covers of this book.