Earth Moves Cooperative
Earth Moves Flower ID Event with Hilary Ash 30-05-2020
1.Wildflower ID Basic Jargon
2.Umbellifer Jargon
3.Leaves
4.Some recommended Plant ID Guides
5.Wildflower ID Drawing Sheets
6.Plant ID Apps For Smartphones and Tablets
Contact Hillary Here;
www.wirralwildlife.org.uk www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk and the
Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/wirralwildlife/
https://www.facebook.com/NewFerryButterflyPark/
Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland https://bsbi.org/
Field Studies Council https://www.field-studies-council.org/
PLANT ID GUIDES
See Branson, A. 2015 Plant identification: a guide to the guides. British Wildlife 26, April 2015, 251-257.
General and Field:
Rose,F & O'Reilly,C. 2006. The Wild Flower Key. 2nd edition. Frederick Warne (Penguin), London.
but does not include grasses, sedges, rushes, ferns
Streeter,D. 2010. Collins Flower Guide. HarperCollins, London.
does include g/s/r/f
Blamey,M, Fitter,R & Fitter,A. 2013. Wild flowers of Britain & Ireland. 2nd edition. Bloomsbury, London. does include g/s/r/f
Grasses, sedges, rushes, ferns:
Rose,F. 1989 Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe. Viking Penguin, London.
Price,D. 2016 A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes. The Species Recovery Trust, Salisbury.
Grasses:
Hubbard,C.E. 1992. Grasses. 3rd edition, Penguin Books.
Cope,T.& Gray,A. 2009. Grasses of the British Isles. BSBI
Serious ID: mostly to keep at home!
Stace,C.2019. New Flora of the British Isles. 4th edition, C&M Floristics, Cambridge. For a portable version, the Field Flora 1999 if you can find it (out-of-print).
BSBI handbooks on a dozen difficult groups e.g. Sedges, Brassicas, Umblellifers. see http://bsbi.org
Sold by Summerfield Books www.summerfieldbooks.com
for plant family pictures, the old favourite
Keble Martin,W.1965. The Concise British Flora in Colour. Edbury Press, London
Vegetative key:
Poland,J & Clement,E. 2009. The Vegetative Key to the British Flora. John Poland in association with the BSBI, Southampton.
Courses run by the Field Studies Council
Ways to find local botanists to go out with:
Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland http://bsbi.org
(Cheshire (vice-county 58) recorder Graeme Kay)
Cheshire Biological Records Centre www.record-lrc.co.uk
Cheshire Wildlife Trust www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk
In Wirral, Wirral Wildlife (local group of Cheshire Wildlife Trust) info@wirralwildlife.org.uk
WILDFLOWER ID DRAWING SHEET 2018
Bedstraw (Rubiaceae) cleavers, ladies bedstraw
hedge bedstraw
leaves in whorls of 4-6, small flowers with 5 petals fused at base.
Bindweed (Convolvulaceae)large bindweed.
trumpet flowers
Borage (Boraginaceae) viper's bugloss, forget-me-not,
green alkanet
hairy-bristly, fruit of 4 nutlets, alternate leaves
Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)buttercups, spearworts, kingcup
Head of separate seeds on a common base, on top of bright petals.
Cabbage (Brassicaceae/Cruciferae) hedge garlic, cuckoo-flower
4 sepals, 4 petals, fruit a capsule/pod
Carrot (Apiaceae/Umbelliferae) hogweed, carrot, cow parsley,
sweet cicely
umbrella-flowers. Bracts are at base of main umbrella, bracteoles at base of each mini-umbrella holding the flowers
Chickweed} (Caryophyllaceae) campion, mouse-ear, ragged Pink } robin, stitchworts
mostly opposite, simple leaves, (4)5 petals often divided to base, usually white.(4)5 sepals.
Cranesbill (Geraniaceae) cranesbills, herb Robert
long seedpod like bird's beak, 5 petals, lobed leaves
Daisy (Asteraceae/Compositae) daisies, hawkweeds, hawkbits
compact heads of many individual flowers. Flowers may be tubular or have a flat-strap-like "petal" (ligulate). Heads may be all tubular (discoid) or all ligulate, or have a cluster of tubular surrounded by ligulate, like the common daisy (radiate). The sepal-like green projections surrounding the flower-head are phyllaries
Dock (Polygonaceae) docks, sorrels, knotweeds
tepals (not petals+sepals), often toothed. leaves have a stipule sheathing the stem.
Mint (Lamiaceae/Labiatae)mint, woundwort, selfheal, lavender, sage, rosemary, marjoram, selfheal
square stem, opposite leaves, often aromatic. flowers in axils of leaf-like bracts, sepals fused, petals fused, so each whorl looks like a little tube with 2 lips, each lip divided.
Orchid (Orchidaceae) marsh orchid, bee orchid
flower with 3 back tepals and a distinct lower lip.
Pea (Fabaceae/Leguminaceae) clovers, trefoils, vetches, black medick
flower with upper standard, 2 wings and 2 fused petals making the keel
Plantain (Plantaginaceae)ribwort
Rose (Rosaceae) bramble, roses, cinquefoils, wood avens, hawthorn, apple, cotoneaster, salad burnet
alternate leaves, usually 5 sepals and 5 petals, numerous stamens. leaves usually have stipules at least when young
St John's wort (Hypericaceae/Clusiaceae/Guttiferae)
St John's worts
opposite simple leaves usually with black/translucent glandular dots. petals 5, yellow, often glandular. stamens fused into bundles.
Speedwell (Veronicaceae) toadflax, foxglove, speedwells
flowers 2-lipped, some with spur or pouch at base
Willowherb (Onagraceae) willowherbs
ovary is tube, often long, with sepals and petals at the tip.
called hypanthium
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PLANT ID APPS FOR SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS
This is based on an article by Hamlyn Jones in BSBI News 144, April 2020, pp.34-40. (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland www.bsbi.org) `Artificial Intelligence for plant identification on smartphones and tablets’
Mr Jones looked at free apps that try to identify plants from uploaded images. He tested these in late 2019 – but these apps get updated constantly.
No app will give you the correct answer all the time – the best in his tests was Seek, with 12% wrong genus or even family. It is not possible to name all plants from photos – some need examination with a hand lens, detailed measurements, etc. Usually they give a choice of several species, and you need to look more closely and compare with standard floras (see file about those) or their electronic equivalent e.g.
MAKAQueS www.makaques.com
BotanicalKeys www.botanicalkeys.co.uk/flora
Visual-flora www.visual-flora.org.uk
Some apps will let you upload several photos. That is likely to give better results. Success depends on a good clear photo. Take photos against a contrasting background if possible, and to show the flowers, leaves and other key characters clearly. A tree shape taken across a field will not get named correctly!
Ones recommended by Hamlyn JH Jones as giving reasonably good results:
Plant.id www.plant.id can upload several photos but limited to 5 ids a week. Ranks the suggestions as to how likely they are.
Google Lens lens.google.com did well in tests but does tend to ID to North American plants not British ones
Seek www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app will do real-time evaluations from video, and does not need internet access to operate (the only one of those tested to not need live internet access). Did well in tests but not so good on monocotyledons (grasses, sedges, rushes, etc)
Flora Incognita floraincognita.com User needs to first identify to herb/shrub/tree/grass/fern. After that had a good rate of correct IDs. Gives a confidence rating for possible IDs, like Plant.id.
PlantNet identify.plantnet.org Needs user to classify photo as leaf, flower etc and select database for Western Europe. Suggests several answers with confidence levels.
Several others were tested but did badly with <50% correct e.g. Candide (largely aimed at garden plants), Bing, PlantSnap, iPlant.Plant identifier.
So use these apps with care. They are good aide-memoires for the times (afflicting us all) when we look at a plant growing and say `I know your name but I can’t remember it’. The ones given by the app should hopefully include the correct one. They will usually give a correct family, hopefully a correct genus, which makes it much quicker to use the standard keys to get to species.
If the choice is between a rarity and a common species – law of averages says it is likely to be the common one!
Various websites, including iNaturalist, allow you to send in photos for identification by experts. Record (www.record-lrc.co.uk) the Cheshire region biological records centre, will try to ID plants (and animals) from photos.
So take the book as well as the phone when out looking at plants.
