The ability to accurately identify plants is a skill that can be employed (and enjoyed) by a wide variety of people, from those with an interest in their local plants, foragers, to professionals wanting to assess the value of habitats for conservation, development and land management.
This intermediate course will guide you through what may at times seem like a daunting amount of botanical terminology, and help you to build confidence in using the vegetative key for successful identification.
FSC Water plants AIDGAP is an identification guide to all larger plants found in fresh water, including emergent plants. Now updated to Stace (4th edition).
Need to use a flora to identify flowers, but rusty on the botanical words? This handy guide illustrates the main characters used in identification, including specialist terminology for leaves and parts of the flower.
Want to start identifying grasses? The FSC grasses guide features a manageable list of 30 species, all widespread and common. Descriptions and diagrams demystify specialist terms, from awns to spikelets. Also included is a multi-access key to vegetative characters.
Written by two highly experienced botanists, FSC Orchids is a convenient and concise identification guide to 69 species, subspecies and hybrids of orchids.