How To Identify Plants

There are many ways to learn how to identify plants. Most people start with a book, and if this is where you wish to start, let me give you this advice. Don't buy a general field guide at first, something like “how to identify plants in the Eastern United States.” It is likely to be so broad as to be useless to a neophyte such as yourself. The best first step in learning how to identify plants is to go to the local library and take out a book. The smaller the region covered the better. The more photographs and illustrations, the better. The ideal sort of book will be something like “How to identify plants in coastal areas of Northern California.” Any broader than that, it is likely to be useless unless you have some experience.

Better yet, get an expert to show you how to identify plants. This is especially useful if you plan on making use of some of your plants for culinary uses. Find someone who knows how to identify poisonous plants. Surprisingly, the differences between edible and inedible strains can be very slight. Many people have gotten sick, and a few have even died, from an inability to correctly identify the plants that they thought they could eat.

If you don't know anyone who can show you how to identify plants in your area, there are plenty of other options. Almost any place in the United States is likely to have a national, state, or regional park near by, and these parks almost always have nature walks of some sort. On a nature walk, a ranger will show you and your group how to identify plants and animals in the area. If you desire further information, he or she will be able to help you to a variety of helpful sources to help you learn all you want about how to identify plants. In addition, these nature walks can be a lot of fun, and a great way to meet people in your area with a similar interest in local fauna.

Once you have experience identifying plants, then you should get a good, general field guide. Some of these guides have pencil drawings, while others have photographs, or both photographs and drawing. It may sound strange, but I've always found that the drawings are more help with how to identify plants, because they tend to exaggerate the plants distinguishing details, while photos understate them;