WANT FURTHER INFORMATION?
Here are some suggestions

This list is by no means exhaustive; there are many other excellent sources available.

Most of the information on native usage came from two very excellent books. My primary source was Kari's very authoritative ethnobotany of the Dena’ina K’et’una (Tanaina) Indians of Southcentral Alaska, detailing their various usages of plants.

   Kari, Priscilla Russell Tanaina Plantlore, Dena'ina K'et'una, 2nd ed. National Park Service, Alaska Region 1987

Pojar & McKinnon’s book has much of the same information, supplemented by further info on these same plants for different tribes. This book is an excellent reference (with good color photos) on the plants of coastal Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska.

   MacKinnon, A.; Pojar, J., eds Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast Lone Pine Publishing, Vancouver B.C. 1992

Eleanor Viereck has done a good book on more modern medicinal uses.

   Viereck, E. G. Alaska's Wilderness Medicines Alaska Northwest Publ. Co., Edmunds WA 1987

And Janice Schofield has a layman-oriented book on more modern-day food uses of our native plants.

   Schofield, Janice Alaska's Wild Plants A Guide to Alaska's Edible Harvest Alaska Northwest Books, Anchorage AK 1993

If you want further descriptive information on the plants: Hulten’s book is “The Bible” of Alaska Flora. It has keys, some descriptive information, and rather rudimentary line drawings of the plants.

   Hulten, Eric Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford CA 1968

Anderson’s Flora is probably the most informative Alaska flora available (out of print).

   Welsh, S. L. Anderson's Flora of Alaska and Adjacent Parts of Canada B.Y.U. Press, Provo, UT 1974

Verna Pratt has done a number of excellent books for the layman, published by Alaskacrafts in Anchorage.

The taxonomic “authority” used for the plant names was the Plants of Alaska –Alphabetical Listing from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. In cases where newer botanical names have replaced those that may be more familiar to you, we have also included the older synonym.

Margaret Malm
Summer 2000