Wildflowers as far as you can seeIdentifying wild flowers can be a great way of learning about nature without having to run after animals who, for some reason, don’t like standing still long enough. Unfortunately this is one skill that requires a little expert help and so you need to purchase or borrow a Guide to Wild Flowers or Plants for your local area. This can become an intriguing hobby and may even lead to a career in botany.
Steps
- Buy a good guide and read the introductory chapters to learn how to use its “identification key”. This key will take a little getting used to and some practise but keys are usually designed to be easy to use.
- Use the key on several wild plants you already know, until you can use the key practically for any flower or plant you come across in your area.
- Learn more about your local flora (the wild plants in your area) by joining a local wild flower or naturalist club.
- Keep a life list, or mark the location and date you found the plant in your guide or in a journal. This can be a very satisfying hobby and if you do become a botanist or National Parks guide, your little hand-kept guide will be extremely useful to refer back to all the time and you will undoubtedly continue to add to it during your career or volunteering.
- Impress your family and friends with your botanical knowledge. Encourage them to help protect plants in their area.
Tips
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Wildflowers atop a mountainFinding a good guide can be troublesome because they are usually very specific to an area, so ask at your local public library, a Biology department at a University close by or a nearby Park Office.
- If you ever discover a flower or plant that isn’t in your relevant guide and you think it may be a new discovery, take a photo of it and go and speak with a botanist at your local Parks Office or Botany Department in a university. They will always be keen to identify a new species of plant. If it is something new and you were its discoverer, it is quite possible the plant will be named after you!
