hehe thanks ! I made quite a dent on the ‘unknown” in Québec, now trying to id (when I’m sure) the angiosperm (mono or dico) it’s basic but I think of it as a form of training :)
2 Likes
Plant families (with Cape eyes) a beginner’s guide
1 Like
Also:
Field identification of the 50 most common plant families in temperate regions
https://plants.sdsu.edu/plantsystematics/studentresources/Struwe_50MajorTempPlantFamilies2016.pdf
4 Likes
Also:
Conservation Research Institute: illustrated glossary of botanical terms
https://www.scribd.com/document/602921769/Cri-Flora-Glossary
3 Likes
“Botany in a day” By Thomas Elpel is a book that uses family characteristics … if you search the title online you will find related resources, including a 45 minute video by the author that runs through some of the basics.
4 Likes
Thank you so much for these 2 links !
1 Like
King Philip Came Over For Good Soup or Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. That should help you at least practice the main taxonomic terms
2 Likes
That would be a big surprise to entomologists and all other invertebrate zoologists! There are about as many mammal species as in the one family of flies I work on.
In any case, my point was more that many plant families group genera that do not have obvious characters that diagnose them in the way that animal families (vertebrate or invertebrate) do. Although in this way they’re similar to vertebrate “orders” which were incorrectly grouped based on convergent characters until molecular phylogeny showed how the clades evolved.
1 Like
I think you could also try to get in contact with local enthusiasts. In cities it is possible to find groups of people that are not academics involved in the study of different topics. Sometimes these people organize field trips. If you are lucky, you can find people who are happy to teach. In certain cases such groups are linked to institutions like natural history museums…
For plants, once you will have learnt some families and how to recognize them, you will be able to deepen your knowledge in taxonomy with a textbook. I would not suggest to do the inverse.
that would be great.. but being in rural Québec, there is no group around… there was some, but I can’t get any response from any of them. They all seem dormant since the pandemic. I’ve been trying for over a year and none are local to me so I just don’t see the point to continue trying.
I’d love to live somewhere where internet and books are not the only way… but here we are 
1 Like