Flowers are complex plants with many uses.
Botany is a study of plant structure, function and classification. Studies of plants are wide and diverse due to types and varieties. Weather, elevation and soil decide which plants grow naturally in specific areas of the world. Plants add to the beauty of landscape, prevent erosion, replenish nutrients in the soil through decay, cleanse the air of carbon dioxide and produce oxygen and food. Botanists, gardeners and people with casual interest can learn to identify plants. Does this Spark an idea?
Grass
Grass covers the ground as lawn and pasture.
Hollow stems form nodes where leafs develop. A lower sheath protects the young leaf shoot while the long and narrow leaf blade emerges above. Stems will also creep across the top of the ground and produce new stems of grass or branch out from under the soil to produce new shoots. The sides and veins of the grass blade run parallel to a straight or tapered end.
Trees
Trees grow distinct trunks with branches sprouting needles or leaves.
Needlelike leaves are descriptive of conifer or evergreen trees. Broad leaves grow across from another or stagger along the stem. Leaves can have rounded lobes, rounded with no lobes and toothed margins. Use bark, branches, buds, flowers and fruits to identify trees. It is easiest to use a botanical picture key when identifying your exact species.
Weeds
Weeds have little food value.
Di-cots and mono-cots are the major groups of weeds. Cotyledons are within a seed and emerge at germination as the first or embryonic leaf of a seedling plant. Di-cots grow two pairs and mono-cotyledons produce one pair of leaves. Broad leaf weeds are di-cots and produce veins in the leaves that fan outward like grape leaves. Di-cot veins also grow off the midrib to the edge of the leaf, like apple leaves. A mono-cot weed is called sedge. Sedge stems are triangular and leaves come from all three sides. Other weeds have round and hollow leaves. Use a botany key for specific weed identification.
Fruit and Vegetables
Fruit and vegetables are edible seed-bearing plants.
Pollinated flowers of fruit trees grow an ovary. Ovaries continue to enlarge into a mature fruit that's sweet to eat. Vegetables produce an ovary that's edible when ripe, such as tomatoes, squash, eggplant and cucumbers. The seeds of vegetables are edible as part of the fruit, with the exception of avocados. Some fruit seeds are edible, such as in strawberries, some grape seeds and bananas. Vegetables and fruits grow on bushes and vines while some vegetables grow as tubers, like potatoes, carrots, beets and turnips. Some people eat grape leaves and the flowers of squash, so botanical definition of fruit and vegetable is confusing. Basic common identification is fruits are sweet and vegetables aren't sweet.
Fungus and Algae
Some mushrooms are edible fungus.
Identifying plants includes fungus. These plants spring up quickly in shady, cool and damp areas. They reproduce by spores, do not grow leaves, roots or chlorophyll. Use a field guide when identifying mushrooms as some types are poisonous. Algae are brown, yellow-green, red, green or blue. Alga grows in water and moist surroundings like fungus. However, algae are a chlorophyll-bearing plant. Alga also grows in water. Seaweed is an alga.
Tags: grape leaves, grows water, vegetables edible, when identifying