In all my years of teaching Botany I encounter two misconceptions about plant identification. These ideas are ones that people get hung up on and it really prevents them from progressing in learning to recognize plants.

The Two Most Common Misconceptions about Plant Identification:

1. Thinking that you need to identify plants down to the species.
2. Thinking that you need to use scientific names for plants.

Most people think that both these things are necessary in order to be successful at plant identification.

Well, I’m here to tell you that neither of these things are true.

Misconception #1 – You need to identify plants to the species level

First of all, unless you have encountered a plant before, it is almost impossible to narrow it down to the species level. Developing good plant identification skills is not about knowing every species. It’s about training your eye to see the plant parts and recognizing the patterns that cue you into what plant you are looking at. Observation is key.

The first time you encounter a plant in your garden or in the wild, it is very likely that some of the plant parts that you need to see in order to identify it positively will not be visible. 

What plant parts are visible?

Most perennials flower only for a short period of time. If I find Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) growing in my woods, I might not recognize it for what it is unless I happen to come upon it during the period when it is flowering.

This is why observation is a key skill in plant identification and it is usually necessary to observe a plant throughout the season in order to narrow the identification down to the species level.

So if you can’t narrow down the species, what should you do?

The answer is painfully obvious – identify it as far down the taxonomical classifications as possible. Can you pinpoint the Genus? The plant Family? Great! You can actually do more with that information than you think.

Misconception #2 – You need to know the Scientific Names

What is a scientific name? Most of us equate scientific names with the words “hard” and “complicated,” and that stops us right there because we think, “That’s Latin! I can’t pronounce that, much less remember it.” But, scientific names are actually quite simple once you know the pattern of the terms within the name itself. Let me explain.

Within taxonomical classifications, the scientific name consists of two words. The first word denotes the Genus the plant belongs to, and the second word denotes the Species.

Let’s consider an example: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

The first word of the scientific name of this plant “Achillea” is the Genus name. The second “millefolium” is the species name. Put the two together and they make the scientific name that is assigned to this flower.

Do you need to use Scientific Names?

In my own life, I almost never use the scientific names for plants day to day. In my opinion, there is no need to use the scientific names, unless they naturally come easy to you. There’s no harm in doing so, but it is not necessary either.

When I teach children plant identification I rarely use scientific names simply because I’m often working with a wide range of ages and they are hard to pronounce. I almost always use the just the common names.

Now, let’s sum all this up and talk about when knowing the scientific name of a plant can be useful and when you might need to narrow down a plant to the species level or use the scientific name.

When do you really need to know the species of a plant or use it’s scientific name?

There are only three main instances when I sometimes feel like determining the species of a plant or using the scientific name are warranted.

1. When a plant has a poisonous look-alike.
   If a plant has a toxic or poisonous look-alike, then identifying a plant down to the species level may be needed before the plant is used.
   
   However, more important than being able to pinpoint the species is to know what plant families contain poisonous plants – Parsley Family, Nightshade Family, Plantain Family, Buttercup Family, etc., and to be able to rule out whether or not the specimen that you are looking at might be part of a plant family that contains poisonous plants.
   
   Usually, if you can rule out that the plant that you are looking at is not a poisonous member of one of those plant families, then narrowing down the species past that point is not often needed.
   
2. When more than one plant uses the same common name.
   Plants have scientific names for a reason. The binomial names first organized by Carl Linnaeus groups plants into a hierarchy so that the related plants are grouped together to help us not only identify them correctly, but also so that we will know how to better use them. This is where the problem of common names comes in.
   
   Common names are based on tradition and used across cultures for different species of plants. Let’s use Calendula as an example. One of the common names for Calendula (Calendula officinalis) is Pot Marigold. The problem is that other plants use that same or similar name – Marigold, French Marigold, African Marigold, Mexican Marigold are all different plants even though their names overlap.
   
   Do you see why it can be confusing? So, using a scientific name can sometimes be called for if you are dealing with a plant that has a common name that is also used for a different species.

3. When you are looking for a specific species for a particular use. Sometimes you might be looking for a specific species of plant for a specific reason. Let’s say you are starting a garden with native plants and you want to grow the native Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) in your American garden.
   
   Then you would want to be able to distinguish between this plant and Blackberry hybrids that may have been naturalized in your area as they can look similar. However, knowing the exact species would not make other varieties of blackberries any more useful as food except for your specific desires and goals for your garden.

Takeaway: Knowing the scientific name or species name of a plant, does not make it more useful to you.

This idea can be very confusing to new foragers, gardeners, or home herbalists as likely, they have read a book or follow an herbalist or gardener that says to eat a plant it should be “X” species, or to make a remedy with an herb you need to find “Y” species. Most people believe that you need “XYZ” – enter species name here, in order to use a plant for a specific purpose. However, this is almost never true. 

If I find Plantain growing in my lawn and I want to chew it up to apply to a wasp sting on my daughter to draw out the poison from the bite, in that moment, knowing if it is Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago major), Narrowleaf Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), or American Plantain (Plantago rugelii) will make no difference to me in how I use it. All species of Plantain would be equally useful for this purpose and researching what species it is before I use it would be a waste of time.

How much do you need to know about a plant before you use it?

There is a personal comfort level for each person related to this, but for me, if I can identify the plant family that a plant belongs to and I know that there are no poisonous or toxic species within that plant family, then I am comfortable using it.

How do you identify plants to the family level?

It’s actually much easier than identifying it to the species level like most people think they need to do because each plant family has visible characteristics and patterns that you can see to positively pinpoint what plant family the plant is in.

That is how I teach my in-person students to identify plants and the method that I teach in my online classes as well. It saves you time and frustration working through complicated plant ID keys, because once you learn what to look for, you can recognize the plant family that a plant belongs to without even cracking open a book.

If you want to learn more about the patterns method of plant identification, check my online class or my top recommended resource, Botany in an Day by Thomas Elpel.