Naming Flower Pictures

I have taken a bunch of flower pictures and plan to continue taking
more. I love to take the pictures and share them but I have a problem,
I have no clue what they are called!

I give them generic descriptions for lack of knowledge. Does anyone
have a link to a free guide for finding the names of flowers or can
help me name the flowers I have taken pictures of?

http://www.floweryforests.com

Forest wrote on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:32:10 -0700:

FW I give them generic descriptions for lack of knowledge.
FW Does anyone have a link to a free guide for finding the
FW names of flowers or can help me name the flowers I have
FW taken pictures of?

There are a lot of good wildflower handbooks and most now have
colored pictures of each flower unlike older volumes like
Peterson's Guides that had black and white drawings (admittedly
good) of many.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Sep 5, 10:32 am, Forest Wanderer wrote:
I have taken a bunch of flower pictures and plan to continue taking
more. I love to take the pictures and share them but I have a problem,
I have no clue what they are called!

I give them generic descriptions for lack of knowledge. Does anyone
have a link to a free guide for finding the names of flowers or can
help me name the flowers I have taken pictures of?

http://www.floweryforests.com

A quick search turned up this one from Texas A & M, as well as many
others.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/w...lery/index.htm

Paul B.
www.scienceteacher.biz

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:32:10 -0700, Forest Wanderer
wrote:

I have taken a bunch of flower pictures and plan to continue taking
more. I love to take the pictures and share them but I have a problem,
I have no clue what they are called!

I give them generic descriptions for lack of knowledge. Does anyone
have a link to a free guide for finding the names of flowers or can
help me name the flowers I have taken pictures of?

http://www.floweryforests.com

Many of your flowers look more like (and are) escapees from cultivars. Or as I
strongly suspect, just flowers that were planted in people's gardens and
nurseries. It wouldn't be a good idea to call them "Forest Flowers". That
implies native wild varieties. It is misleading and deceptive.

Identifying plants (or insects, any life-form with myriad species) from photos
can be a daunting task at times. Especially when it comes to true wildflowers.
Most all of them adapt to the environment in which they reside. The very same
species may look completely different in two parts of the continent, or even
from county to county or habitat to habitat. Many of them even undergoing what
is called "convergent evolution". Where wildly differing orders and families of
plants will be shaped by their environment to appear almost similar. Even down
to the smallest of their flower-parts. This is particularly true in harsh
environments like tundra ecosystems where plants species have no choice but to
adapt to survive. They become almost identical in appearances.

I often take many photographs of rare or still unidentifiable plants and insect
species. I have learned some things to make this task less daunting.

1. Always keep at least two flexible rulers with you. One ruled in black on
white, and another with black and white on clear. So you can include centimeter
and millimeter measurements in at least one of your photos of that species. The
clear ruler so you can see parts through its surface, ruled in black and white
so the measurements will show up no matter the lightness of the subject. Failing
this then at least include some easily identified object that you can use as a
size-reference later, such as an easily identifiable coin, paper currency, etc.
I've even used a BIC-lighter at one time so I could measure it later and note
the size of the plant in the image using the BIC as a base reference length. On
one occasion I photographed a beetle that could only be told from the more
common species by a difference of only 2mm in length. The one I photographed
being extremely rare, the smaller of the two species. I and others wouldn't know
this unless I had photographed them with a ruler of some type in one of the
images. The same is true of plants. Some species can only be told apart by a
difference in size of flower and plant parts.

2. When photographing flowers get especially good at macro photography. Always
try to include a very clear close-up of the blossom so it clearly shows the
count of all flower parts, petals, stamens, shape of the pistil, etc. As well as
a shot from the underside to clearly show the number of sepals if present.

3. Always include images of the leaf structure and its orientation about the
stem, or how it might be emerging from the soil or other supporting structure.
This is particularly true of wild (and rare) orchids, species being partially
identified by the type of structure they grow from. Wild orchids grow in every
region of N. America (even as far north as Alaska). So if you are into
photographing wildflowers, there's a good chance you may happen upon some one
day.

4. Include a wider-angle photo of its habitat. Some plants may only grow in bog
environments, others at the edges of dunes. Some only grow in close proximity to
other plants within that environment. The more you study this the more you come
to learn how vastly interdependent all ecosystems truly are. Some species of
orchids so specific that they won't grow in any other soils or surfaces but the
ones they are found in or on. Their very existence totally dependent on resident
fungi and nematodes that live in the soils. They can't be cultivated because
those conditions can't be exactly duplicated anywhere else, except where they
already grow.

5. Take any "artistic" photos after you are done doing all the documentation
grunt-work photos. Consider that your reward if it'll help.

6. Educate yourself on the parts of plants and how to use them to sort them into
their various families. If you know a flower has a 4-parts system, 4 petals, 4
stamens, etc. Then that will at least narrow it down to which of several
families it might belong to.

7. Get a good identification key and learn how to use it. (as you are doing now)

8. Arm yourself with as many identification guides as you can. Because even
though they may claim to be complete, few truly are. Many of them only
mentioning similar species as a small after-thought notation of their existence.
You may have trouble with one author's description of a plant, or their
representative images, yet another author's example might be closer to the
specimen you have in hand (in photo). The converse might be true with the next
plant you find.


Your photos of all those common cultivars are "okay" (lacking in any artistic
composition whatsoever). But if those were truly native wildflowers it would be
difficult to identify them from those images alone. You would have to also have
more detailed images included of their flower-parts, leaf-structures, etc., as
well as notations of location, time of year they were flowering, and any other
helpful identification clues.

In the case of your photos, you would do better checking out online nursery
suppliers and order their free catalogs. As most of your flowers will be found
in listings of plants that you can buy, instead of those that are found in
nature identification guides of native and wild species. Only two of your photos
could be remotely considered "Forest Flowers", the Trillium and the carnivorous
Pitcher-Plant blossom, but even those have been cultivated for specialty
nurseries.

On Sep 5, 3:47 pm, plb49 wrote:
On Sep 5, 10:32 am, Forest Wanderer wrote:

I have taken a bunch of flower pictures and plan to continue taking
more. I love to take the pictures and share them but I have a problem,
I have no clue what they are called!

I give them generic descriptions for lack of knowledge. Does anyone
have a link to a free guide for finding the names of flowers or can
help me name the flowers I have taken pictures of?

http://www.floweryforests.com

A quick search turned up this one from Texas A & M, as well as many
others.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/w...lery/index.htm

Paul B.www.scienceteacher.biz

Thnak you very much this is good information. Yes, some if not most
are cultivated flowers but some are not. I plan to continue posting
more as I find them.

Thanks again for the great information. All of you who posted it. I am
sure this will help others also.

I plan to visit a local conservatory soon and get some pictures there
also. I am not the greatest photographer and don't plan to quit my day
job!

But it is fun and I appreciate the replies and ability to learn.

Thanks!