There are around 400,000 flowers in the whole world. While many of these are in the wild, many flower species could still be found in city gardens and even flower shops. Some of these are widely available, while others, like the Middlemist Red, are rarely seen. Rumor has it that there are only two recorded samples of this special kind.
If you’re planning to start collecting flowers, you may want to know how to identify them. Some of them look similar, and some may belong to the same family, but look different. While this could be challenging, labeling them is an exceptional start to gaining knowledge about the blooms. This way, you could easily pick a flower for somebody, whether buying or selling the bloom. So, here’s an article to guide you. Read on!
1. Check The Petal Size And Layers
If you want to see even the slightest differences in flowers, you may look closely at the petals. In many cases, they differ in the number and thickness of layers. In addition, they come in different sizes and shapes of petals, although many of them have identical colors and textures.
For example, you could easily identify the difference between ranunculus and peonies because of the latter’s flatness and tinier size. On the other hand, peonies have larger blooms and wider spreads. These flowers may produce double, semi-double, or single layers, while ranunculus generally has double blooms.
2. Learn The Identifying Marks
Apart from the layers and petal sizes, there are hallmark characteristics unique to a particular flower. These marks help botanists in identifying even the most closely related species. If you want to start learning these characteristics, you could start with the following features:
- Leaf Arrangement: Some leaves are alternate or opposite, while few are whorled.
- Sepal And Leaf Shape: Generally, sepals look like budding leaves, but their appearance may look different when the flowers spread. On the other hand, the shape of leaves depends on the type of midrib and other leaf structures.
- Number Of Petals: This may refer to the layers or the average number of petals each flower species has. Most eudicots generally have four to five petals, while dicots typically have three to six petals.
- Petal Color Singularity Or Combination: Some flowers have only one dominant color, while others have a combination of more.
- Overall Plant Shape: This refers to the general structure of the plants, including the collective appearance of the leaves, stems, and other parts.
3. Keep An Inventory
Taking pictures of flowers that have semblance with each other is an excellent way to record them. In doing so, you may need to write the specs about them—the general sizes, layers, and some petals, and typical colors, among others. You could create an inventory that contains the flowers you have taken pictures of, such as zinnias and orange, and have a great range of varieties.
For this purpose, you may need to bring a camera or keep your phone ready when you visit flower stores, parks, and the wild. Of course, you may need to get your notebook to put your photos and records for faster reference and comparison.
4. Use A Flower-Identifying App
Because of the technology, you could use your phone to improve your flower-identifying skills. In this regard, you may just need to take a picture of the flower in a perfect frame, and the app will identify the bloom in no time.
In taking pictures, you may need to have a clear image and avoid deformities to have a good, if not the best, result. Moreover, many flower-identifying apps provide extra info about thousands of flowers, and tips on manually labeling the blooms.
5. Attend Seminars About Plant And Flower Identification
While this may cost you some bucks, attending classes on flower identification equips you with expert knowledge in the field of botany. While many of these seminars are crash courses, they could still give you essential tips and tricks on flower identification. In addition, these classes may provide you access to scholarly references that’d give better insights.
6. Grow Your Garden
After gaining enough knowledge and experience, you may put everything into practice. You could start growing a flower garden. This way, you could have a set of realia you could refer to every time you encounter a new or similar flower. It may be impossible to grow all the flower species in the world. Yet, starting a garden is a proven way of producing the blooms you’ll treasure for a long time.
Wrapping Up
Identifying flowers may be challenging for beginners. Fortunately, some guides could help in this process. If you’re planning to grow your flower garden or put up a shop, flower identification is a necessary skill to get your job done. With that, you may use the tips you’ve gained from this article and use them whenever you could, while you pick flowers or grow your own.
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