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Originally Posted by Cedars
Thats it! (and I double checked my book and its not there).
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It's probably not in there because it is more of a western species. I'm still not 100% on the species, but I'm pretty sure about the genus.
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Do you have any tips/tricks that I should know for increasing my chances of identifying plants? Such as, All/most purple stemmed plants fall under blah blah blah family or maple leaf type plants are usually under a [insert type here] to help me learn distinguishing features.
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The two main things that help me identify are flowers and geography. I saw the flower you posted and after a minute I thought, "That looks like an indian paintbrush flower, but it's orange...hmmm...". From there it just took a quick internet search. Knowing botany can help as well. For example, some books are broken down by flower type. For this flower I would know to confine my search to the irregular flowers section. From there it is helpful to know some other features. Are the leaves lanceolate? Are the veins parralel? Are the leaves dentate? etc. etc.
I guess it just comes down to experience. I'm sure when you see a bird that you don't know, you can usually track it down fast because you know it is a type of wren, or even that it looks similar to a wren. When I see a bird, I have to flip through the book pag-by-page as I have no reference/experience to build from.
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Or are you having too much fun passing on this info and dont mind doing this?
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Is there any particular book lines you would suggest or avoid? The one I picked up is a Peterson field guide for Wildflowers of the NE/N central region.
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Unfortunately there is no one good book. The Peterson books are great. I'd stay away from the Audobon guide as it never seems to have the plant I'm looking for. I'd highly recommend checking out
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Although it might be best to take the
advice of your local DNR.
Cheers!
