4Real Forums: how to identify plants

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
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Topic: how to identify plants

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ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 2:01pm \| IP Logged

Our boys just got all excited about trying to identify wild plants in our back yard. I'd love them to run with it, but in the past whenever they tried to identify stuff, I got frustrated trying to help them find answers to their questions like - how can I tell which mushroom this is. We have lots of Audobon and Golden field guides but we usually end up hanging between several things it could be and not sure exactly which one it really is. This happened with all but the most common birds as well - or really unusual and distinctive.

Are there any ideas! I need someone to walk with us through our yard! My dad can help identify major trees, but not wildflowers.

Janet

cvbmom
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 8:32pm \| IP Logged

Janet (and others),

If you find a good way of identifying plants in the yard please let me know. My problem is that I planted a mix of wildflowers around the house and have no idea whether what's growing or not is a weed or a flower

. Is there any good way to tell? Our wildflowers field guide hasn't been much help as not much has flowered yet, just a lot of green coming up. I'd like to pull the weeds to make space for the flowers, but I don't know what to pull and what to leave.
Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Christine

Sorry I couldn't be of help, Janet, as I'm just as lost as you are.

stefoodie
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Joined: Feb 17 2005
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Posted: June 01 2005 at 9:10pm \| IP Logged

here are my two favorite sites:

Gardenweb's Name that Plant Gallery, membership (free) and picture upload available

University of California Weed Research and Information Center

hth,

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stef

mom to five

MacBeth
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Joined: Jan 27 2005
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Posted: June 02 2005 at 10:03am \| IP Logged

Janet, for serious identification, I always turn to the Peterson's Guides (link is to one of my web pages with a list of many Peterson's guides by region and topic). His method is tried and true.

For edible plants, I LOVE Wildman Steve Brill's book, and I have never had a problem id-ing edible plants using this book, even when they have lethal look-alikes:
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants. This book does not include mushrooms, and I have not yet been brave enough to try my skills there, though I have a friend who harvests 'shrooms from his neighbors' lawns using the Peterson guide

.

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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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ALmom
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Posted: June 02 2005 at 5:56pm \| IP Logged

Thanks Macbeth! We'll look into Peterson guides.

Also I had to smile at the description of the wildflower planting experience. The same thing happened to us. Since we didn't know about all the people here, we had to let stuff grow side by side and ended up with a lot of Poison Sumac!

Janet

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