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Welcome to Learn Plants Now! – a web site devoted to strategies and tips for learning plants.
There are more kinds of plants than there are of animals in this world, but many people ignore them. It has been said that if you hang a painting of a forest on the wall, and there happens to be a deer in the picture, most people will tell you the painting is about the deer. They will not be able to tell you anything about the forest – or the grass for that matter! This site is designed to help turn you into a person who notices – and enjoys! – plants.
The focus of this site is to give you the tools and tips you need to start recognizing plant families right away. In your first lesson you’ll go through an overview and a rationale for the families approach. The name of the first lesson is, well, Start Learning Plants.
Image modified from Wikimedia Commons.
You’ll need to learn some basic botanical terms. We’ll start with some simple ones, like “leaf,” so don’t be intimidated. That article is called 19 Basic Botanical Terms.
Then you’ll want to go into the field and start looking closely, really closely, at plants with your Plant Profile Sheet.
Finally, you’ll learn how to put this all together and Start Learning Plant Families.
The material here is to get you started, so you can Learn Plants Now! You’ll soon find yourself wanting to go into more depth. Take a look at the books I recommend: Books for Learning Plants.
If you’re still not sure why anyone would want to learn plants and their families, read over my own take on the matter in Why Study Plants? A Personal View.
Whenever you return to this site, you can pick up where you left off by clicking on any of the links in this article, or you can go to the Plant Articles section in the right hand column.
If you then want to see more examples of plant identification discoveries, take a look at my blog where I periodically share with you the process of learning the name of a new plant. Since I live in Panama and the ecosystem I live within is a savanna, the name of the blog is A Neotropical Savanna. Don’t worry, though, the process for learning a new plant will apply to plants in your area, and many of the families that grow here will also be found in your own backyard or garden.
You are very welcome to write with questions. For contact details, see the About page.
May you enjoy your journey in the plant world!
