wildflowers

[parsleythelion]

one man's weed seems to be another man's flower.

anyway, disregard that. how on earth am i to tell what wildflower my wildflower plant is when it's not in bloom? i received a lot of plugs today you see and if they weren't labelled then i would be none the wiser. i've yet to see a book that ahs pictures of wildflowers in their pre bloom civies. can anyone suggest such a book or online resource?

[Paul mabbott]

No - most crucifers will look the same at an early stage, most umbellifers &c &c ... So you might be able to tell one family from another but not a species or even genus. If you're not sure about families then post some pics and I'm sure someone will help.

Why exactly do you need to know?

PS: yes, a weed is any plant growing in a place where humans don't want it!

Originally Posted by parsleythelion

one man's weed seems to be another man's flower.

anyway, disregard that. how on earth am i to tell what wildflower my wildflower plant is when it's not in bloom? i received a lot of plugs today you see and if they weren't labelled then i would be none the wiser. i've yet to see a book that ahs pictures of wildflowers in their pre bloom civies. can anyone suggest such a book or online resource?

[tufftie]

Rose is your best bet as far as wildflower id guides go but for what you really want, not so sure....

[Adam Cheeseman]

Francis Rose has vegetative keys for plants not in flower.

Cheers,

Adam

[JennyS]

I did a Google a couple weeks back for 'seedling rosettes' and found some (but not much) online stuff, mainly from the US.
I'm sure I bookmarked the links and if I ever find them again I'll post them.......

Seedling Images is one I've just found

[poschiavanus]

If you can read german, there is a recently published book called "Flora Vegetativa" by Stefan Eggenberg and Adrian Möhl. It is a guide to Swiss angiosperms (excluding woody plants and some acquatics, but including grasses, sedges etc.), based on vegetative characteristics. I would guess it illustrates over 2000 species (4 per page), organised by family and genus. The illustrations are annotated and large genera and families have both traditional dichotomous keys multi-access keys.

There is a PDF file with sample pages on the publishers web site here (this will download the PDF). Available online from the usual suppliers (NHBS, amazon.de) and the publishers.

As far as I am aware no other book takes vegetative keys to such a degree. Obviously, there is a language issue, and a large number of plants which do not appear in the British Isles. A few well known British plants are missing, for instance Bluebell, and I doubt if it would help very much on a salt marsh. BUT, in the absence of anything else with the same comprehensiveness, I think its a real step forward.

poschiavanus

[parsleythelion]

thanks for all your replies. i will get the wildflower key as that's a book i wanted anyway. here is a useful looking site i found: The Seed Site