are there any apps or websites for learning about plants and other things? i need to work on my mundane knowledge!
Great question, and I’m excited that you want to learn! It highly depends on your area, as each region has different plants.
Try seeking out reputable field guides that have been turned into apps. (Such as Peterson or Audubon). You may also find that different societies/whatever have created localized guides and turned them into apps.
There are a lot of Plant ID apps where you simply take a photo and it gives you it’s guesses. I haven’t personally used any, but they seem like a decent starting point if you have absolutely no clue. But please don’t use them as a sole identifier!
Edit: iNaturalist is a decent one because it has it’s first guess from whatever picture you submit, and then people review it and can either agree or disagree with your initial ID and provide their own.
I look for websites that are created by government organizations, plant societies, museums, universities, field guide publishers, etc.
When trying to identify a plant, sometimes something as simple as googling “purple flower shrub ___ (your area)” and looking at the image results can help you out, then go to more reliable sources to fact check.
I’d also recommend familiarizing yourself with botanical terms, or at least figuring them out each time you have a mystery plant you want to identify. (Think: leaf shapes, branching patterns--opposite, alternate, whorled, other?--, flower types, fruit types, etc.) This is a huge rabbit hole you can go down but those four things are very helpful for basic identification.
Here are some search queries to try:
Wild plants of ___ (your area)
Native plants of ___ (your area)
List of ___ (your area) plants
___ (your area) plant guide
Broaden the search if your area isn’t pulling up much. For example, I’m in Washington state so I might try “Pacific Northwest” or “West Coast” or even “North America” if desperate.
Here’s some examples of decent sites for my region (WA/PNW):
(I got to all of these sites by using the search queries listed above btw)
Washington Native Plant Society
Burke’s Washington Flora Checklist (University of Washington Herbarium)
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Plant Database
University of Washington’s Directory of Recommended Links (lots of resources)
King County Native Plant Guide
Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board
Northern Forest Atlases for woody plants, mosses and sedges.
Here are the plant guides I use the most:
Other plant guides (I’ve collected them over the years through used bookstores, there are likely newer editions):
Lots of libraries have field guides, I recommend borrowing them and seeing what formats work for you!
And please comb through secondhand bookshops, there’s no need to drop a small fortune on field guides! There are very few that I buy new and that’s because they’re worth it, and good enough that they won’t be in used bookshops anytime soon!
