Introduction to PlantID.net
Our Goal – Easy plant
identification
·
Of
most California plants1
·
By
almost anyone2.
We give you:
·
A short list of
possibilities
·
Lots of pictures
·
Things to look for
(ID tips)
Short Plant Lists
PlantID.net’s big trick is to provide you with a short
list of possibilities based on something simple that you enter.
·
Today,
you can use the Easy Search on the home page to specify what California
county you are in, and some basic information about a plant you’re interested
in. Your goal is to enter enough
information so that you get back a short list – this often turns out to be
easy to do.
·
In
the future, you will be able to choose from thousands of customized Short
Plant Lists, created by plant experts around the state. These lists are kept short by focusing on a
specific topic such as Wildflowers of Chimney Rock, or “Thistles of Marin
County”.
o
Today
PlantID.net has about a dozen published lists, and another dozen under construction.
o
Due
in Fall 2016, Plant List Entry will allow plant experts around the state to
enter their own customized short lists for areas they know a lot about.
Lots of pictures
PlantID.net currently has a
bit over 50,000 full-size photographs of California plants.
·
Each
photo is tied to a specific plant species, subspecies or variety (taxon).
·
Three
thumbnail photos are chosen to illustrate each plant in a Plant List.
·
Full
size photos are presented in a slideshow, organized by taxon.
Things to look for (ID tips)
In addition
to photos, we work hard to provide as many useful ID tips as possible. These include bloom time, likely habitat,
flower color and shape, and customized tips entered by plant experts. These tips will get to be more and more
useful as more plant experts contribute their knowledge. You will find ID tips several places:
·
Each plant in a Plant List has a paragraph of
ID tips.
·
Thumbnails in Plant Lists often have captions,
describing key points to notice in the photo.
·
Full scale photos show ID tips. These may be copies of thumbnail captions,
or custom notes entered to describe this photo.
_________________________
(1)
PlantID.net covers about 10,000 California
species, subspecies and varieties of trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns and
grasses found in the wild. Some of
these plants are difficult to distinguish from similar plants, but most can
be readily identified based on locality, pictures and ID hints.
(2)
PlantID.net hints and captions are written to
be understood by people with no botanical training. If we want to use a technical term, we
describe it first in English, for instance “Daisy petals (ray flowers)”.
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