The British flora comprises over 1100 native species, plus 600 common introduced species (and another 3000 rare introductions, that beginners don't need to worry about). It is hence a rather daunting task for any beginner, to go from >1700 species down to one! However, you can greatly simplify the task by determining which family a plant belongs to, because if you know the family you can check just a few pages of your ID book, instead of trawling through all of them!
The method described here has been designed to be used by people with no prior experience of identifying plants, and its goal is to show which families your mystery plant might belong to. It has been tested and revised over ten years of classes with total beginners. In using it, you will also train yourself to recognise common plant families, which is the first step to becoming an expert!
No prior knowledge is needed, but you will need at least one picture-based plant Identification guide. It works best with one (or more) of the following three:
Concise British Flora by W. Keble Martin
(has the best pictures, but minimal text, and some species not illustrated; great for total beginners, and can often be got cheap second-hand)
Collins Flower Guide by D. Streeter et al.
(decent pictures and text, good for separating very similar species)
The Wild Flower Key by F. Rose
(probably the best text, again good for separating similar species, but pictures not as good as the other two)
To use this method, download the two sheets illustrated, using the PDF file immediately below this text. If you can, print them as one double-sided A4 sheet, and laminate or protect it in a plastic sheath, so you can take it into the field! I provide detailed instructions below, but with only a little practice you'll be fine without these, and able to use just the two sheets.
famfinder-p1_2-aug19.pdf | |
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HOW IT WORKS: My sheet will ask you a short series of easy to answer, jargon-free questions about your mystery plant, and once you have answered them you’ll be presented with a list of possible families that the plant might belong to, in descending order of likelihood. For each family, the relevant pages are listed for each of the three books named above. Simply check each family in turn, going through every numbered page, and look for a picture that matches. It really is that simple! If you think you have a match but aren’t sure, mark the page and go back to it if you find nothing better. Alternately, type the scientific name into an image search engine and compare with the photos that come up!
I’ll go through how it works in detail below, but once you’ve got the gist you’ll find that it is fast and effective to use, and will also train you to recognise families. Students with no prior experience were able to identify over a dozen plants from scratch using this method in an hour and a half.
I’ll go through how it works in detail below, but once you’ve got the gist you’ll find that it is fast and effective to use, and will also train you to recognise families. Students with no prior experience were able to identify over a dozen plants from scratch using this method in an hour and a half.
We begin with three quick questions, to eliminate distinctive groups, as shown on the flowchart above.
First, if your plant is fully aquatic (i.e. floating in water or growing from the bottom of a permanent water body), go to the box in the middle bottom of page 2. There are four columns for water plants – one for those with large showy flowers (there aren’t that many!) and three for those with barely visible greenish flowers, and for these you choose a column based on leaf arrangement.
Second, if your plant is woody, i.e. a tree or shrub, it is in the top middle box on the second page. Choose a column based on flower colour, flower shape, and if green/brown, whether the flowers look like flowers, form catkins, or have another shape entirely.
Finally, if you’re lucky enough to find one of the special species with no green parts at all, which means it has no chlorophyll, then check the short list of families in the extreme bottom right of page 1.
First, if your plant is fully aquatic (i.e. floating in water or growing from the bottom of a permanent water body), go to the box in the middle bottom of page 2. There are four columns for water plants – one for those with large showy flowers (there aren’t that many!) and three for those with barely visible greenish flowers, and for these you choose a column based on leaf arrangement.
Second, if your plant is woody, i.e. a tree or shrub, it is in the top middle box on the second page. Choose a column based on flower colour, flower shape, and if green/brown, whether the flowers look like flowers, form catkins, or have another shape entirely.
Finally, if you’re lucky enough to find one of the special species with no green parts at all, which means it has no chlorophyll, then check the short list of families in the extreme bottom right of page 1.
For most ‘flowers’ you encounter, the answer to these first three questions will be ‘no’. The next operation is a tiny bit more difficult, but essential: you must determine the arrangement of the flowers (collectively, the term for a group of flowers is an ‘inflorescence’). Choose from one of six categories:
Based on which of these your plant fits, choose a row from 1-6 in the family-finder sheet. A couple of things to be aware of:
Having chosen a row in the grid, you next answer a series of simple questions about the individual flowers, to pick a page, then a column:
First, are the flowers green or brown? If so, go to the first two columns on page two. Green or brown flowers are often very small (they tend to be pollinated by wind, not insects) and hard to examine, therefore choose the left or right column depending on whether the leaves are grasslike (i.e. long, thin and parallel sided, as seen in daffodils, crocus, bluebell etc), or broad (i..e a different shape without parallel sides, often with branching veins, like dock, nettle, oak, etc).
If it is not green or brown, you will find it on page 1. The next question to ask is,
Are the flowers bilaterally symmetric? That means an individual flower that, if you rotate it, looks different - or technically speaking, there is one line of reflectional symmetry but no axis or rotational symmetry. The human face is bilaterally symmetric; flower examples include pansy, orchids, and all British members of the pea family. All bilaterally symmetric flowers go in the column on the right-hand side of page 1.
Are the flowers bilaterally symmetric? That means an individual flower that, if you rotate it, looks different - or technically speaking, there is one line of reflectional symmetry but no axis or rotational symmetry. The human face is bilaterally symmetric; flower examples include pansy, orchids, and all British members of the pea family. All bilaterally symmetric flowers go in the column on the right-hand side of page 1.
If not bilaterally symmetric, flower will be radially symmetric, i.e. if the flower is rotated it looks the same, as in buttercup, wild rose, crocus etc. Note that symmetry must always be judged looking at the flower end-on, not from the side (e.g. a tulip is radially symmetric, but appears bilateral from the side, as do all radially symmetric flowers). Because radially symmetric flowers are much more common in Britain, we need to ask more questions:
If it is radially symmetric, how many petals does it have? The categories here are 3 or 6, 4, 5, or 7+. Three and six are grouped together because often flowers with three true petals have another three that look like petals. Also note that a few plants have petals that are forked, giving the impression there are twice as many as there really are, but I have controlled for this by listing the relevant families in brackets in the 7+ petals category, as well as the one where they properly belong.
Now, because five is by far the most common petal number, for these we ask one final question: are the petals joined? Some will have petals very obviously fused into a funnel shape (like a bindweed or gentian), while on others they may be fused only at the base, almost out of sight (like a forgetmenot or cyclamen). A good way to tell if the petals are not joined even at the base is to see if they fall from the flower separately, as on a wild rose or buttercup. Compare a speedwell or scarlet pimpernel, where the petals are fused, and all fall off together as a group. Based on this, pick the left or right hand of the two columns for 5-petalled flowers.
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Now, you should have chosen a row, and a column. You are now faced with a list of possible families, e.g. for 4 petals, in leaf axils, the list is Onagraceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Caryophyllaceae, (Scrophulariaceae). If you have answered your questions correctly, your plant is in one of these families. Check them in the order they are listed, because the top one (in this case Onagraceae) is the most likely. Remember that to save you time, black numbers give plates of Keble Martin’s Concise British Flora, whereas red and green numbers are pages in The Wild Flower Key, and Collins’ Flower Guide, respectively. Keep going till you find a match! Remember you can check possible matches by typing the scientific name into a search engine like Google Image, and comparing photos.
Good luck! Once you've used it a few times, you'll be able to dispense with these instructions and just use the 2 sheets alone. And soon, you'll start recognising families without assistance!
A few last points. Some families have had their names changed, and/or been broken up or merged with others. A list of these is on the second sheet, and an asterisk by a family name indicates that it might be known by another name in your book. I've often used older names here because the method was originally designed to work with Keble Martin. Where family names are given in brackets, it means that family technically doesn't belong in that category (e.g. it really has 4 petals but looks like it has 8), but I've put it there because it looks like it does.
A few last points. Some families have had their names changed, and/or been broken up or merged with others. A list of these is on the second sheet, and an asterisk by a family name indicates that it might be known by another name in your book. I've often used older names here because the method was originally designed to work with Keble Martin. Where family names are given in brackets, it means that family technically doesn't belong in that category (e.g. it really has 4 petals but looks like it has 8), but I've put it there because it looks like it does.
Separating similar species.
In some groups, like speedwells and forgetmenots, you will find that there are many species that look very similar, and it is difficult to get an exact identification by looking at pictures alone. When you're starting out, don't worry about this - it's OK to say "it's a forgetmenot" and leave it at that.
However, when you're ready, the best and correct way to separate similar species is using keys. Both the Collins Flower Guide and Rose's Wild Flower Key contain such keys. These ask a series of questions with two possible answers, until you get to a single species and hence a precise ID. Using these requires patience, and learning some terminology, but the books will help you with that.
In some groups, like speedwells and forgetmenots, you will find that there are many species that look very similar, and it is difficult to get an exact identification by looking at pictures alone. When you're starting out, don't worry about this - it's OK to say "it's a forgetmenot" and leave it at that.
However, when you're ready, the best and correct way to separate similar species is using keys. Both the Collins Flower Guide and Rose's Wild Flower Key contain such keys. These ask a series of questions with two possible answers, until you get to a single species and hence a precise ID. Using these requires patience, and learning some terminology, but the books will help you with that.