Flower Identification Strategies for Hobbyists

[M Farooq]

Farhan's interesting game on plant id has made me start a separate thread because it led to a question: How do other people identify an unknown plant when they need to. I'd share my experiences and others can also add their tips.

1. First of all there is no substitute for reading books - hence no short cut. Rudimentary knowledge of plant families is of great help as it eliminates or help us to narrow down to few choices. Visiting botanical gardens of new cities/ countries and taking pictures of plants with their name tags is what I do as well. But for hobbyists like us, internet is the best resource.

The following may be elementary for some and interesting for others:

2. For an unknown plant, I usually start with Google images, rather than google search with some plant characteristics, like colour, number of petals, fragrance and leaf forms. That often brings up very similar images and often lead to the plant name. If no similar plant is coming up, then change the search keywords.

3. Another powerful tool provided by Google is when you have the plant image in your file. One can upload the image, search for similar images. One can see a small camera icon for image uploading.
Now for a good search and quality results, there must very little background and the picture should mainly be of the flower to be identified. This trick was very helpful when Farhan was uploading crisp and sharp images of flowers in the game. Uploading the image instantly gave the right answer. So if we wish to identify our flowers using this strategy, the flower must be highly prominent.

4. Last but not least, when everything thing fails, I ask in the University of British Columbia's Garden Forums (UBC Garden Forums). Anyone can register and thier section for plant identification is very good. It works similarly as this forum i.e. one posts the pictures for id. The level of expertise is quite high. Not only garden plants but wild plants, alage, fungi, are also discussed. Has anybody tried other forums for plant ids like Daves' garden. Their membership is paid, I guess. What was their experience?

Regards,
Farooq

[rafique]

Farooq sb explained the searching techniques very well covering all.

I would add few things

i used the combination of 2nd and 3rd technique with additions of key words like,color, flowers etc. this search normally opens the doors to Wikipedia
and different flowering forums and seed selling portals.

when you upload image with camera icon of google image search then it display similar images along with some text(often) describing the image. usually these suggestion are helpful other wise add you own text as explained by Frooq sb.

once get any clue of flower or plant then search again with additional key words like genus,family and cultivar.

[Farhan Ahmed]

Uploading image of a flower for ID/similar results will only help if the photograph is taken from internet. Photograph taken through camera can be resolved better by descriptive search. I uploaded two camera photos echium & Annual Mum and apparently method 2 & 3 did not work.

[rafique]

Uploading image of a flower for ID/similar results will only help if the photograph is taken from internet. Photograph taken through camera can be resolved better by descriptive search. I uploaded two camera photos echium & Annual Mum and apparently method 2 & 3 did not work.

First of all Farhan there is not any alternate/shortcut to knowledge and experience.
For echium i did not tried because i was late.
yes in case of crown daisy, it was failure because of lack of my knowledge of nomenclature.

i reach at crown daisy and did not consider this image because of crown in center and color of the flower.

now just add one word crown daisy (cultivar). you will find the result.


There is nothing alternate to knowledge and experience.

[M Farooq]

Uploading image of a flower for ID/similar results will only help if the photograph is taken from internet. Photograph taken through camera can be resolved better by descriptive search. I uploaded two camera photos echium & Annual Mum and apparently method 2 & 3 did not work.

First of all Farhan there is not any alternate/shortcut to knowledge and experience.
For echium i did not tried because i was late.
yes in case of crown daisy, it was failure because of lack of my knowledge of nomenclature.
i reach at crown daisy and did not consider this image because of crown in center and color of the flower.
now just add one word crown daisy (cultivar). you will find the result.
There is nothing alternate to knowledge and experience.

Uploading images in Google is not a 100% successful strategy; clearer the picture of the flower (macro shot) the better. Adding few key words helps. I usually browse >200 thumbnail images before moving to step 4.

Farhan, what type of keywords do you begin with in descriptive search?

Regards,
Farooq

[M Farooq]

Uploading image of a flower for ID/similar results will only help if the photograph is taken from internet. Photograph taken through camera can be resolved better by descriptive search. I uploaded two camera photos echium & Annual Mum and apparently method 2 & 3 did not work.

We can start with an example of an image which is not available on the internet and we can see the detrimental effect of the background. I picked this flower from mountainous areas. I am purposely using a wild flower so that we have less (commercial, i.e. seed vendors, nurseries etc) images on the net.

Wild flower- with large background

Wild Flower.jpg (20.21 KiB) Viewed 4845 times

Uploading this image as it is and add no keywords. Search, an we get absurd results i.e. some cartoons

Now if we search with this uploaded image + keywords: Rocky mountain flowers, still no useful results. But this time, the results are more plants, at least similarly coloured ones.

Cropping the same image so only the flowers remains:

Cropped picture of the same wild flower

181109_10151292180847575_377027106_n.jpg (17.77 KiB) Viewed 4845 times

And then searching with the uploaded image+ keywords: rocky mountain flowers

The sixth image is that of the right plant: The Indian Paintbrush Plant

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Farooq

[Izhar]

Nice knowledge and tips sharing...

I rely on the method No. 2 at first and look for similar looking blooms and leaves.. then note down the genus (genus is the first part of the botanical name of any living thing for e.g. in Conocarpus erectus, the word "Conocarpus" is the genus and "erectus" is the species).. then google the images for the genus name and most of my identification attempts are successful..

I do have a medical background, in the intermediate we learn botany.. the practical examination has, i guess 10 marks for, spot identification, we are provided with flowers, stem, leaves and roots to identify the plant.. identifying is fun

[M Farooq]

Nice knowledge and tips sharing...

I rely on the method No. 2 at first and look for similar looking blooms and leaves.. then note down the genus (genus is the first part of the botanical name of any living thing for e.g. in Conocarpus erectus, the word "Conocarpus" is the genus and "erectus" is the species).. then google the images for the genus name and most of my identification attempts are successful..

I do have a medical background, in the intermediate we learn botany.. the practical examination has, i guess 10 marks for, spot identification, we are provided with flowers, stem, leaves and roots to identify the plant.. identifying is fun :ugeek:

Nice, how nostalgic!

[Syed Adnan]

http://www.gardeningpakistan.com/downlo ... &mode=view

Dear Rafique Sahab, first of all congrats for winning the competition, i post this photo a few months back it is still unidentifiable, kindly ask your Jinn to identify this one, thanks.

[M Farooq]

http://www.gardeningpakistan.com/downlo ... &mode=view

Dear Rafique Sahab, first of all congrats for winning the competition, i post this photo a few months back it is still unidentifiable, kindly ask your Jinn to identify this one, thanks. :lol:

Your challenging id question has defeated everyone so far :-(, lets see what Rafique shb's jinn has to say

Wait for its flowers. It will confirm whether is Clivia or not.