Plant identification

Plant identification means assigning a plant to a particular taxonomic group - ultimately to a species. The identification of a plant specimen is its identification as identical to or similar to another plant already known.

Definition is the identification of an item as identical or similar to other items already known; Identification may or may not be reached with the help of the literature or by comparison with a plant of known identity. There is no need to participate in the plant identification process. The naming of the plant or the nomenclature differs from the definition.

A switch is a device that facilitates identification of an unknown plant by a series of choices between two or more statements. A key is a synthetic analytic device or arrangement in which a choice is provided between two contrasting characters resulting in the acceptance of one and the rejection of the other. The phrases in the keys are based on the characters of the plants (listed above). There are some plants with unique leaves that most people can identify with. For example, the sugar maple leaf (the central image on the Canadian flag) is well known. Plant leaves are more difficult to identify when the shape of the foliage is not well known

You may be looking at plants growing in your garden and wondering how to differentiate the leaves of a plant. It is useful to know that a leaf consists of two parts, the leaf blade (the largest part of the leaf) and the stem (or peduncle) that connects the blade to the stem.