Plant Anatomy for Dummies?

Nature Talk
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It’s me, I’m the dummy.

That aside, about a year ago I knew very little about distinguishing plants but randomly decided I was really, really into one of the more confusing genera, Cirsium, and rather than spend my time studying up on the subject I just set off to go find as many as I could and figure things out along the way. I think I’m now okay-ish, as long as you ask me about thistles of the US and Canada and nothing else. However, I do remember what it was like when I first set out, having no background in botany and knowing essentially nothing. For me, one particular thing that took far longer to understand than it should have was the vocabulary for the flower head of thistles, as the definitions that pop up when you search online aren’t necessarily the most intuitive, and it can be difficult to translate the parts of an anatomical diagram of another aster to the parts of a thistle.

I did search the iNat forums for help at the time but didn’t find what I wanted, however, in case another poor sod finds themselves in my position in the future, here’s a quick and dirty diagram that would have saved me a ton of time:

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With some extra words so it’ll show up in search: Carduinae, corolla, involucre, bract, phyllary

Does anyone else have any diagrams they really wish they could send to themselves in the past?

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If I would’ve received some of the diagrams, I refer to these days, 5 or 10 years ago, I would be traumatised or at least confused.

I wish I could get one from 10 years in the future. It would mean I am still around for a while.

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You might as well change the title to “Plant Anatomy for macrotim” (aka, a dummy). :joy:
Though that’s a nice diagram, especially for someone like me who knows literally nothing about plants.

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https://www.compositae.org/downloads/Systematics_evolution_and_Biogeography_of_Compositae.pdf has a lengthy illustrated glossary as Appendix A, although it’s one of those things that would be confusing to the novice as there’s a certain level of “look up this word to understand the definition of this word, which you looked up to understand…”

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Well, then we can keep each other company. I’ll bring snacks. :laughing:

@michaelthaibinh, it is a nice diagram. I hear you about Cirsium; most of the Asteraceae are my Achilles’ Heel. There are the few that I know reasonably well …and then there are the rest, which turn into compound-headed, pollen-bearing hydras if I stare at them long enough. :woozy_face:

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once upon a time i took it upon myself to learn how to sort Ichneumonidae to genus (with no formal biology training); i had access to the Gavin Broad 2018 key, an insect anatomy book from my university’s entomology department, and google, and oh my god it was completely overwhelming going between the three sources trying to understand even a single sentence in the key. just beyond my capabilities haha, i ended up giving up after 5 or 6 hours (and unsuccessfully sorting a single specimen) and haven’t honestly tried since then. i have so much respect for actual experts and especially ppl who are paving the way in taxonomy like Dr Broad, they truly have encyclopedic knowledge in their heads

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