What this album hopes to achieve
This album aims to serve as a tool if you need help in identifying plants, trees or animals you took a picture of.
There is a wealth of information in the SP community, and some members are very skillful in this area. This page tries to bring together those needing help with those in the know.
Feel free to add your pictures (specify where the picture was taken) if you just need that last bit of advice in deciding between two subspecies, or if you have absolutely no idea what you took a picture of, and
please detach them once you are satisfied with the answers received. (Anything that's identified down to the genus shouldn't count as "unidentified", at least not after some time has passed. There are lots of cases where even a professional can't tell the exact species, especially from a photograph.)
To improve the chances of successful identification
in the case of flowers, it is a good idea for the pictures to include both
bloom and foliage. Including the
size of the bloom and the
height of the plant in the description helps. The
location and
time of year are helpful, too.
Context also helps - examples: "Along a stream running through mountain hemlock and meadows", "at the timber line", or "under ponderosa pines".
And you experts, please stop by from time to time to help out others by commenting on the pictures themselves. Thank you!
Also share with others what books, websites or other resources you use to identify plants and wildlife.
Some basic advice
Some basic advice on identifying plants from
nartreb.
If you know the common name, the easiest thing is to type that in to
Google or
Wikipedia.
If you don't know the common name, you have to learn to identify major
families. For example:
If it's got a very large number of ray-shaped petals, like a dandelion, it's probably related to asters (Asteraceae). There's an album on "Sunflowers/Asters" here on SummitPost.
If it's got lots of short stamens in a ring, it's probably related to roses (Rosaceae). There's an album on the "Rose Family" here on SummitPost.
Azaleas, along with rhododendrons (in fact, azaleas *are* rhododendrons), rosebay (again a kind of rhododendron), laurel (Kalmia), blueberry, and many other shrubs are in the family Ericaceae. They all tend to have waxy, oval-ish leaves which they usually retain in winter, and their petals are fused together to some degree. Blueberries and their many relatives (cowberry, bearberry, cranberry) have small bell-shaped flowers, laurel (Kalmia) has cup-shaped flowers with fused petals, and rhododendrons have big showy flowers with the petals fused only at the base. There's an album of "ericaceous shrubs" here on SummitPost.
The iris is loved by many. There's an album on "the family Iridaceae, genus Iris" here on SummitPost. Also check out the Iris Species Database.Resources
Resources on the web
Africa
Asia
Australia
Europe
European Mountain flora album on SummitPost.
Flora.cyberia
FloreAlpes.com (in French)
SoortenBank (in Dutch)
North America
Paul Slichter's Flora & Fauna Northwest
Paul Slichter's Flora & Fauna of Denali National Park
Plants, Birds, Insects, Organisms of Hawaii
Calflora
USDA PLANTS Database
Plants of the Lewis and Clark Trail (for the inland northwest/northern Rocky Mountains)
know-it all (a web site with many natural history resources, operated by a bilogist/retired teacher)
South America
Resources in print
Africa
Asia
Australia
Europe
Alpine Flowers: Of Britain and Europe by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Marjorie Blamey
Mountain Flowers in Colour by Anthony Huxley
North America
The Peterson Field Guide series
Plants Of The Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska by Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon
Guide to Colorado Wildflowers Vol. 2: The Mountains by G. K. Guennel
Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual by C. Leo Hitchcock and Arthur Cronquist
The Butterflies of Cascadia: A Field Guide to All the Species of Washington, Oregon, and Surrounding Territories by Robert Michael Pyle, Idie Ulsh, and David Nunnallee (definitive, if heavy)
The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley (probably the current definitive fild guide to most users, there are LIGHTER Eastern and Western editions)
Wildflowers of the Olympics and Cascades by Charles Stewart (Most smaller field guides have a problem with selection of what to leave out. This guy has a genius for including the flowers you are likely to see when climbing and hiking. And the book is LIGHT.)
South America
Acknowledgements / credits / thanks
For their help in identifying flora and fauna: A Bit, alpbabe, Anya Jingle, Arthur Digbee, b., BazZ, birdny, Bob Sihler, Mrs. dh3 and donhaller3, Ejnar Fjerdingstad, Elisabeth, franza mosco, hfaust, hiltrud.liu, Kerstin, klwagar, Lolli, MOCKBA, mrh, nartreb, ochoco, peterbud, tarol.
10 successful identifications were made in the first 3 days of this album - thanks to all!
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