My name is Mary Farmer. For many years I taught oceanography. Every time I went to sea, I learned something new about the ocean. Now, having fairly recently moved to Panama, I find myself surrounded by a different environment, and every time I set foot out my door I see something new in the plants around me.

When I first started learning about plants, I felt overwhelmed with all the new information. As I gradually organized the material in a way that made sense to me, I thought it might make sense to you as well, especially if you have recently decided to learn the names of plants. There are many reasons you may want to do this -

• you may want to learn what’s native to your area so you can watch for invasive species.
• you may want to monitor the diversity of plants in your area - is it on the decline? are you working to improve it?
• you may take delight in the beauty of flowers or the majesty of trees
• you may already be a bird watcher and now you want to know the names of the plants that are hospitable to birds
• you may want simply to know the names of the living things in your surroundings

Your reason may not be on this list, but I trust that the material you find here may help your understanding of plants regardless of the reason you’re interested.

There’s always another plant to learn - the numbers of known plants in the world is almost unimaginable - anywhere from 1/4 to nearly 1/2 a million, according to wikipedia. And that just the plants that flower - then there are the conifers, the ferns, and… you get the idea.

So I’m including a blog, in which I share with you the process I go through as I learn each new plant. The plants I’m learning about happen to be in Panama, but many of the plant families I see are found worldwide and even when they’re not, the process of identification will apply to any plant you want to learn.

If you have questions or features you’d like to see, feel free to send me an email. I’ll answer as promptly as I am able. I will not be able to incorporate every feature every person asks for, but I’ll seriously consider any serious request, and I’ll let you know whether I can incorporate your favorite idea or not. I’d certainly love to know about your own successes in plant identification, and I’ll gladly write about them if you give me permission and they seem appropriate to this site. My email address is:

mary(at-sign)learnplantsnow.com

Thanks for visiting.