I want to share some books I've enjoyed on the subject.

The Witching Herbs- Harold Roth
This book is divided into 13 plants, many of which are toxic, most of which I don't have plans to work with. However, I still love this book and got a lot out of it. it goes into the reasons for plant associations and how to learn about them by studying shape, chemical components, traditional uses, and growth habits. There are gardening tips, tincturing tips and so on. Lots of interesting little tidbits like the tradition of using "Live bones" (plant stems harvested green) or "dead bones" (plant stems harvested brown) for blessing and cursing powders respectively. The author also has a website I like called Alchemy Works.

Medicine Grove- A Shamanic Herbal -Loren Cruden
Here's another book that goes into the reasons behind associations and various herbs for various states of life and various purposes (like fumigation herbs). The selection of specific plants described is ok but not too broad. It focuses on the plant's outlook on health and well-being. The author does reference "Native American" practices without specifying which Native tribe, so there's that. But there's a lot that's useful here.

Plant Spirit Medicine- Eliot Cowan
Somewhat new agey, this book is arranged around the Chinese elemental phases. I list it because the questions attached to each element are helpful for understanding personal connections to each element. The end of the book has interviews of healers, each explaining their own perspectives.

The Plant Spirit Familiar: Green Totems, Teachers, and Healers on the Path of the Witch - Christopher Penczak
Not gonna lie, a lot of this book was a bit advanced for me. I don't really have a need to create a plant familiar at the time. There are also meditations for approaching The Green Man and Penczak's representation of the baneful side of plants, The Green Devil. There's a short but helpful dictionary of about 28 balms, banes, and trees that focuses on their nature and magical uses.

The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Plants as Teachers- Matthew Wood
I am not a medical herbalist and I don't plan on being one. This book won't make you a medical herbalist either. At least I hope no one will think they're qualified to be one after reading this book! However, even though this book is focused on the medical side of things, the author goes deep into the nature of a lot of plants as well as their traditional uses. I thought the bit about the connection between Spreading Dogbane and werewolves was interesting.

The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants -Matthew Wood
The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants- Matthew Wood
For anything not covered in The Book of Herbal Wisdom, there's this. There is less in depth information in these books (especially the New World) but there are a wide variety of plants.

Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers - Matthew Wood
The author describes seven herbs as seven stages in a map of a spiritual journey and frequently uses Biblical stories to illustrate them. It's an interesting way to understand his perspective as a healer.

The Magic of Findhorn - Paul Hawken
Classic, and a sort of window into what may be possible in the story of a small community in Scotland that worked with nature spirits to produce an unusual garden. There's some channeling involved and a lot of discussion of the real-life struggles the community had putting their vision into action.

The Perelandia (sp?) Workbook
I can't find this book so I don't know the author, but a search of "Findhorn" and "Workbook" should turn something up. This is a practical guide about how to do the Findhorn thing in your own back yard...at least if you have control over it and patience and muscle testing or some other kind of divination actually works for you. I feel blocked with this since I haven't been able to get muscle testing to work, ever. The last half of the book is about various flower essences.

The Poison Diaries: From the Collection of The Duchess of Northumberland - Jane, Duchess of Northumberland

Not exactly a plant spirit book, but it is a children's book that is gorgeous and extremely morbid. Basically "plants can kill you" which is a good lesson for anyone. I don't know if I'd give this to actual children at the risk of them becoming poisoners.

Pharmakopoeia: Power Plants, Poisons and Herbcraft - Dale Pendell
Pharmakodynamis: Stimulating Plants, Potions and Herbcraft - Dale Pendell
Described as "creative nonfiction" these are wild, self-indulgent descriptions of plant and substance history. It describes their impacts on literature and culture with a strong "do not try this at home" warning in the foreword. It's interesting to me, but not exactly useful. My favorite thing about these is the write-up on the history of camellia sinensis in Pharmakodynamis. (I like tea. A lot.) There's a third book

Brillant. I especially like the Findhorn ones. I never went there but saw a couple of TV documentaries, believe it or not. It was a special place in more than one way: working with the plant spirits but also in terms of its community structure and energy efficient homes kept warm by the body heat of the occupant alone.

They also named physical things like furniture etc, which kind of honours the spirit in inanimate objects. That stayed with me.