Unlock the Secrets of Plant Identification!
Are you smarter than a 5th grader? Or a 4th grader? Pictured above is an actual homework assignment for my in-person 3rd and 4th grade Botany class. Can you identify these plants?
I posted this photo collage on my personal social media page the other day, someone commented and said, “Yikes! Knowing the names is one thing. But knowing the plant families. That’s hard.”
My friend was looking at these pictures and probably thinking, well, I know the names of some of these plants, but how would I know the plant families?
What my friend didn’t know is that knowing the plant families is the secret to learning plant ID. When you learn the characteristics of the plants in family groups, you learn, you’re learning how to recognize hundreds or possible thousands of plants all at one time.
The Aster Family, for example, contains 23,600 species of plants. Once you know the keys to recognizing them, you’re 23,600 plants further along in your plant identification skills than you were before, and it only takes minutes, not hours to learn the handful of characteristics that you need to know.
In the past 8 weeks, I’ve taught my elementary Botany students how to identify the following 8 plant families. Let’s see how many plants they can now identify by sight.
| Plant Family | Approx. Number of Species |
| Aster Family | 32,000+ |
| Mint Family | 7,500+ |
| Rose Family | 4,800+ |
| Lily Family | 650+ |
| Pea Family | 19,000+ |
| Parsley Family | 3,700+ |
| Mustard Family | 4,000+ |
| Iris Family | 2,200+ |
| Total Number of Species >>>> | 73,850 |
Whoa! Are you shocked? I am. What will my students think when I go back into class and tell them that they know how to identify 73,850 plants. Crazy! But it’s true. Every week they get a picture like the one above for homework and work at it until they can identify them all correctly.
How many can you identify? I’d love to know!
Are you smarter than a 4th grader?
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