Did you know that the smell of sassafras blowing offshore convinced Columbus he was near land? Or that the American sycamore, which has the largest tree trunk in the eastern forest, can live for 500 to 600 years? Or that in the period before the American Revolution, patriots designated a sycamore tree in each colony as a "Liberty Tree" -- a meeting place for plotting against the British?

These facts are just a few of thousands you'll find inBotanica North America, an encyclopedia of the wonderfully diverse North American native plants by noted Canadian garden writer Marjorie Harris. This charming compendium is filled with more than 420 entries that provide essential information on each plant's physical attributes, natural history, common uses, and ethnobotany. There are also fascinating, often surprising anecdotes about plants you won't find anywhere else. From the Eastern forest to the desert, this beautifully written volume roves across the continent exploring how climate and plant life have affected, aided, and inspired us, from the first Native Americans to North Americans living in the twenty-first century: "The lonely majesty of a wind-swept jack pine has inspired generations of poets and painters," Harris writes. "These trees endure in spite of terrible weather . . . a jack pine forest has a dense, closed canopy with an understory of cherry, blueberry, hazels, bracken, and sweet fern along with trailing arbutus."

Comprehensive and engaging, Botanica North America is also filled with lush photographs of plants in their natural habitat and insightful quotes from a variety of gardening experts and amateurs, from naturalist Rachel Carson to famed conservationist John Muir.

Here is a reference no gardener or environmentalist should be without.

Marjorie Harris is one of CanadaÕs best-known garden writers. Since her first garden book, The Canadian Gardener, was published in 1990, she has written 15 garden books, including the highly regarded Botanica North America.After Marjorie moved from full-time journalism to full-time garden writing, she co-founded Toronto Life Gardens in 1996. This magazine was then folded into Gardening Life, with Harris as editor-in-chief, and continued to publish under that name until 2008. Since her magazine years, Marjorie has written a regular garden column for and made garden videos with The Globe and Mail newspaper. Her garden design business, Marjorie Harris Gardens (marjorieharris.com), features a blog and an extensive archive of articles on a wide variety of gardening topics. Marjorie lives in her own garden, which she started in 1967, with her husband, writer Jack Batten.

Marjorie Harris' profile page