Plant Identification Tips & Tricks-

Plant Identification Tips & Tricks-

Tip #3 Practice Seeing the Gestalt
 

How  do you know your friend? Do you tell them apart from everyone else only  because their nose is a certain shape, and their hair or eyes a  specific color? Even if they didn’t have distinctive features, couldn’t  you recognize them?
 

Gestalt is a theory of perception that  rejects just seeing reductionistic parts—it’s the idea that the whole is  more than the sum of its parts.
 

I think it is important to  practice seeing all beings in this manner. It’s almost indescribable  when you know a plant is just what it is—it’s an individual that can be  set apart from other plants. It’s like seeing a plant from far away and  just already knowing what it is.
 

I am not a master of seeing all  plants this way. There are many thousands of plant species on this  planet, and I am still learning the ones to whom I have been exposed.
 

This  photo is of White Sage (Salvia apiana)–one of the very many white  leaved sages out there! That said, there is something somewhat  distinctive about the leaves of this sage that’s hard to describe. But  when you really know this one, you will always know it when you see it. I  think that is seeing the Gestalt. 💫 💡
 

Follow these posts to learn other Plant ID Tips & Tricks…

#Ethnopharm #Ethnobotany #TheEthnobotanicalExplorer #Botany #California #Sage #Gestalt

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