Tip #6 The Flowers Have It All
Flowers or other reproductive organs are among the most important features for plant identification purposes.
Sometimes, in order to really identify a plant, one will need to know some very minute details which will take close examination to discover. In such cases, flower dissection is the common technique used by botanists to really get a close look at the anatomical structure of a flower.
We are used to looking a flowers for their beauty, but flower dissection can give us a whole new view of what is really going on. It is pretty interesting to take the cross-section of a flower and learn what is inside—you may learn things like: How many flower petals are there, and are they fused?; What is the position of the ovary (is it inferior or superior or some mix?); are the stamen filaments fused or detached?
…Sometimes the correct identification of a plant can come down to these kind of tiny details. And these are the kind of details one often needs to use a Botanical Key or to positively identify a plant.
But if you are a true plant nerd, it can be fun to discover what you are really looking at, and how that flower will bear fruit!
Follow these posts to learn other Plant ID Tips & Tricks…
#Ethnopharm #Ethnobotany #TheEthnobotanicalExplorer #Botany
Photo on Right by Snorski (Passionflower); Left by VonTasha