Plant Identification skill

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darweech Jerusalem, Israel(Zone 9a) Aug 14, 2015

Hello;

I've been reading about plants, gardening, sustainability, landscaping and all what relates to it for the last 4 years. I earned also my Permaculture designer certificate, last year i started designing and fully implementing from scratch conceptual gardens, I do that organically and I incorporate lots of recycling, So far all is going great. I still read alot and I never stopped observing landscapes and wild areas including my own garden which i develop and experiment in.

Now, I feel the urge to identify plants easily and that's why I wrote this thread. Any advice on what's the shortcut to learn this skill? Anything but going to universities (at least for now). :)

Any really really good books with illustrations/images that would help me do the job as well?

Positive regards

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Aug 15, 2015

Hmmm...

You need every book listed here: http://shop.rhsshop.co.uk/rhs/Plant%20Identification%20Book

Some of the not-to-miss-bests are:

Gerd Krussmann

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Alfred Rehder

Hillier

Royal Horticulture Society

American Horticulture Society

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Aug 17, 2015

I would divide the task into sections.

Work on tree ID while you are learning about plant structure:
Different leaf shapes, different branching habits, flower and fruit parts and so on.

There are fewer plants that grow as trees, so you are starting with a small group of plants to ID, and tackling the 'what to look for' part of plant ID at the same time.

I would also suggest doing some research to ID plants at the family level, too. I know the botanists are revising the whole concept of how plants are related to each other, but many of the fundamentals still apply.
An older book that is very helpful to ID the families is:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1621543.Vascular_Plant_Families
There is plenty of description about each family, and how plants are similar when they are grouped together at this level.

When you study about a plant, figure out how to ID it, but also learn some things about its needs, how best to care for it, some history. Almost anything to help that plant stand out.

If there are any botanical gardens near you, make full use of that resource, as well as books.

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