Plants and Habitats is a guide to the British flora that incorporates some novel approaches. It combines the species and habitat approaches to plants and vegetation. Although flowers are described and illustrated it also uses vegetative characteristics to enable identification in the absence of flowers. 74 moss and liverwort species are also included. Plants are grouped by appearance and a simple colour key is used to highlight the main points on identification, habitat and human related issues.

Most of the book is an identification guide to 700 plant species.  These are selected as those which are common, conspicuous or useful ecological indicators; species which collectively make up most of the vegetation in Britain and Ireland. There is also a separate Habitats section describing the flora, ecology and management of habitats. With this combination of approaches the book aims to help people understand our vegetation at all scales, from individual plants to whole landscapes.

The structure and plain English writing style are designed to help with species identification by non-specialists. For those working with habitat classifications, National Vegetation Classification (NVC) codes are incorporated throughout.  Additionally there are summary tables cross-referencing various classifications. The book is written for a wide readership including those working or training in subjects connected with ecology, conservation, land management and other environmental matters.