A typical weekly trip to the garden center or grocery store often ends in me taking home a new plant, but most of the time I don't know what kind it is! I know, I know. If I were a more responsible plant parent, I would take into consideration plant toxicity to pets, whether I even have room for it, and if my room can accommodate its lighting needs. Knowing the plant's identity would definitely help answer those questions! But, Alas! There I stand in my doorway with a couple of plants who are in desperate need of a home AND an owner that can learn what they need. So, I leave it to a few of my trusty plant friends, Google, and yes, even one of those ancient things called books that most of us, including myself, sometimes forget about, to tell me who that mystery plant is!
There's so many resources out there that have helped me to identify these mysterious plant finds, so here are a few to help you!
1.) INSTAGRAM
Before you even go to Google, I would hit up this very resourceful spot! Just send a DM of a snapshot of your mystery plant to a few plant accounts you might follow or even post to your feed. I can guarantee you that someone will know the answer! This has been an AWESOME place that I use for plant identification. Instagram is full of a whole other world. Crazy plant people lurk the depths of the IG feed and are wanting to help their fellow plant community member! I've been able to put a name to a few of my plants because of the community on here. A few of those include my silver ribbon fern and my now dead peperomia rotundifolia.
2.) Google Images
I know. This probably seems like a no brainer, but it really can help! If you type in the description of your plant, you might be able to find it in the images! The one downside of this is that there are so many search results that I've sometimes ended up looking at a completely different plant than what I described. It can be overwhelming, not always accurate, but its a great place to start to get a general idea of what your plant might be.
Crazy plant people lurk the depths of the IG feed and are wanting to help their fellow plant community member!
3.) Garden Center Employees
Even if you didn't buy your plant from their business, they are always more than happy to help you! Just show them a pic of your plant and they'll identify it for you! They might even be able to give you some care tips! What I usually do is buy a smaller, cheaper plant in return for all the help they give me. You don't have to, but I like to do it just as a thank you. I always love to support my local small business!
Just by having a passion for plants and keeping tabs of the ones you like is enough to gain some knowledge in plant identification!
4.) Garden Books
Yes, a book. It can be more tedious looking through the index of plant species, but I searched everywhere for my Fatsia japonica, or Japanese aralia, and could not find out what it was. An old gardening book that had been in our closet for YEARS is what identified it. So pull out your grandmother's old gardening books and get looking!
And last but not least...
5.) Learn as You Go
Plant identification takes time to learn. I've learned so much in my Botany class, reading blogs, looking at plant ID tags at garden stores, and just scrolling through IG posts. At some point, all that scrolling will add up. It doesn't take sitting down with a set of flashcards and memorization skills to learn. Just by having a passion for plants and keeping tabs of the ones you like is enough to gain some knowledge in plant identification! You may not get to the point of distinguishing between poisonous and edible mushrooms, but you'll soon be able to tell a Ficus lyrata from a Ficus elastica. :)
How do you identify plants? In fact, need help identifying any? Leave a comment below!
Happy Planting!
