It is no mediocre work, no standard replication of the usual format of floristic guides.  Rather, it appears that they have taken the best features of many different guidebooks and incorporated as many of them as possible.  The printed page has its limits, but they have made excellent use of the space available, and rarely do you find the blank spaces you see in other guidebooks where the author couldn't think of anything more to write about a species, or a photograph couldn't be cropped or enlarged to fit the space.  The book is profusely illustrated, with text conveniently on the page facing the pictures.  Most plants are depicted with a color photograph, some species with more than one, a few with a line drawing to supplement the photo, and some with line drawings only (these latter are species that tend to be difficult to photograph in enough detail to make identifications possible).  Included are 310 color photos and 92 line drawings.

Entries are headed by common and scientific names (including families, and synonymy for recently changed scientific names).  Basic data about each is provided, appropriately headed for quick reference, followed by the main text which gives engaging information on special characteristics, the life cycle, pollinators, range, habitat, Native American uses, ecology and/or other facts; usually, the derivation of the botanical name is also provided.  Many of the plants described are not usually included in popular field guides, one of the wellsprings from which my appreciative murmurs arose when first viewing the book.

The plants included are arranged within four major groups of convenience: 1) Ferns and Fern Allies, 2) Grasses and Grasslike Plants, 3) Trees, and 4) Shrubs and Forbs (by far the largest group covered).  Within these sections, the arrangement is alphabetical by common name of family, and within families, alphabetical by scientific name, thereby placing related plants near to each other within the book.  So that you don't have to flip through every page to find a plant you want to identify, the authors have included a special section which shows thumbnail images of the flowers arranged within color groups, each photo cross-referenced to the page on which you will find the full description—a visual index.

Could the book be improved upon?  Oh, sure.  Though a compulsive proofreader, I have only come across one factual error so far (page 90, Cryptantha section, similar plants are referred to as "also" having "four-petaled flowers", when the cryptanthas and the others have five petals, as clearly shown in the book's own photos), and this is pretty remarkable for a first edition, first printing.  The quality of the photographs is variable: Most are very good to excellent, but some are rather mediocre or worse, having poor depth of field for the subject, or simply not translating well to the printed page (most images look better on the computer screen or projected as slide transparencies).  The line drawings, on the other hand, are all uniformly very good to excellent.  And even the poorest of the photos are good enough to be valuable for identification (there are plant guides, usually older ones from when color photography was not as technically advanced nor color printing as true, of which this cannot be said).  And do not expect complete coverage of all of the plants in the region, for it would have to be much thicker to do so.  Guidebooks suitable for the layperson almost never have comprehensive coverage.

This new edition updates river mileages to conform to those established by the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center.  The new mile points may vary from old ones by up to one mile.