After realizing I couldn’t name most of the plants in my neighborhood, I downloaded a plant identification app. It was a great way to connect with my surroundings.
“Plant identification starts when we examine the parts of the plants we can see,” said Barbara Kurland, director of learning and partnerships at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, though some of these will change depending on the time of year. Kurland recommends paying attention to features like the shapes and arrangement of leaves and buds, bark patterns and the color and flexibility of stems.
Some plant elements are more telling than others. “Flowers and fruits are so diverse that when they are present, they usually help us narrow our identification down to a few or even a single plant,” Kurland said – just think of a sunflower’s large, vivid petals or the shiny, distinctive appearance of an apple. Other unique characteristics can include “the fragrance of their leaves, or specially ‘modified’ parts like tendrils”, she said.
We asked the staff at Brooklyn Botanic Garden to help readers test their plant knowledge with a quiz. Are you familiar with common US plants? Find out below!
