Plant Knowledge

Helpful clues when identifying plants

Identify between similar plants:

Identify by unique features

Identify a twig as male or female

Seasonal Identification - Plants may look different during the various seasons.

Potentilla fruticosa ‘Primrose Beauty’ - Pinnate leaves | Solitary saucer-shaped, 5-petalled flowers.

1. Woody Plants

• Also known as non-herbaceous perennial plants – trees, shrubs, cactus.

• They have aerial, woody stems and twigs which persist through several winters. 

• Shoots can be thin to thick with bark and bear buds which allow for further new growth during spring and summer.

• Where growth is possible all year, generally no buds will be present and leaves develop from growing points.

  1. 1. 1. Sub Shrubs

           • • Sub Shrubs are small low plants with thin wiry woody stems.

             • Easily mistaken for herbaceous perennials but distinguished by their persistent woody shoots.

             • Example – Heathers (Erica sp.)

        2. Shrubs

           • • Shrubs are larger woody plants with obvious persistent branches.

             • Generally they have several main stems rather than one persistent trunk.

             • Stems tend to be branched at ground level.

        3. Trees

           • • Generally larger than shrubs.

             • Distinct trunk which raises branches well above ground level.

2. Herbaceous Plants

• SOFT - Produce little or no woody tissue above ground and their stems are soft and without obvious bark.

• Leaves and stems die down to soil evel at end of the growing season.

• They can be classed into: 

  • • • Annuals Seed germinates, grows into plant, flowers, sets seed, and dies in one continuous span. Examples include: annual sweet pea, Calendula officinalis, Centaurea cyanus.

      • Biennials Last for two seasons – germinate in spring, leaves in first year, over winter and flower, fruit and seed in second year. Examples include: Carrots, Digitalis (foxglove), Wallflower.

      • Perennials Persist for several years, flower every year, flowering stems die back to ground level every winter, plant persists. Examples include: Hemerocallis (Day Lilly) Nerine bowdenii, Agapanthus. 

3. Climbers

• Climbers are either woody or herbaceous.

• A few climbing plants can grow as shrubs if no support is available or climbers if it is available.

4. Parasitic

• Draw all or most of their nutrition from other plants they grow on. Tend to have reduced plant bodies/modified roots e.g. mistletoe.

5. Epiphytes

• Grow on other plants without extracting nourishment from the plant they grow on e.g. orchids, also moss, liverwort and lichens.

Woody Plants

Herbaceous Plants