How to Look at Plants

You're walking around the city and you encounter some plants - maybe a park, a community garden, a street tree, abandoned lot, or even a weed growing in a sidewalk crack. There are maybe some animals, insects, and humans as well. What sort of plants are these? Why are they here? Should they be here? How do they interact with each other?

But first, why do we care about any of this?

Nature is all around us. Our city is an ecosystem, made up of plants, insects, animals, and humans. If we want to be good citizens of our city, we need to get to know all of our neighbors. Currently, we might just see a garden as collection of undifferentiated green blobs. But by observing individual plants and how they interact with each other and with animals, we begin to view our city as an ecosystem, and understand how plants affect humans, and how humans affect plants.

How do we learn about our neighbors?

Environment

First, we need to evaluate the environment. Define the boundaries of the plot you're looking at. This guide will be most useful for areas smaller than around 100 square feet.

Stable factors

• Where are we? What country, state, city, and neighborhood? What is the local geography and topography?
• What is the currentapparent habitat?biome? LandThough ora aquatic?forested area in a park does not function exactly like a natural forest, it is a good start for our observation.
• If land, then look at the trees around the area: low canopy coverage tois determinea forest,meadow, medium canopy coverage is a shrubland, meadow.and high canopy coverage is a forest.

If aquatic, is it wetlands,a marsh, swamp, estuary, river, or pond? AnCity-specific extrabiomes: one for cities -an urban street tree bed.bed What does the biome imply about sunlight, temperature and moisture levels in this plot? What is the human history of the space? PrimaryIs it a primary or secondary forest, urbancity park, community garden.garden, sidewalk, or abandoned lot? Who maintains the space? WereWhat thereused previouslyto buildingsbe on this area?here? What ecoregion wasare thiswe landin before founding of(https://bplant.org/regions.php)? New York City (easternis temperatein forests)?the HomegrownEastern NatlTemperate ParkForests. EcoregionWhat Finder,did Welikiathis Project.land Wholook like before European colonization? See welikia.org. What plants, animals, and humans lived here? Which way is north? What is the path of the sun throughout the day? Is it blocked by any trees or buildings? How dodoes youit know?change Whythroughout dothe weyear? care?See suncalc.org.

Conditional factors

• What season, month, weather, time of day?
  • You can come back at different times of day and year and redo same analysis over and over. Plants bloom at different times and some plants called spring ephemerals disappear completely after blooming in spring.
• How much sunlight is the plot receiving? Is it blocked by any trees or buildings? What is the path of the sun over the day, and how does it change throughout the year?

Assess the soil.

Is it sandy,finely loamy,or clay-y?coarsely textured? Moist or dry? Light or dark? Is the soil compactedCompacted or loose? WhatHow does each ofproperty these tell us aboutaffect the soilplants? How do plants affect each of the properties? Was there rain or snow recently affecting the soil moisture? What else is on the soil? Leaf litter, rocks, fallen fruit, etc. Is the land flat or sloped? If both, areAre different plants growing in different areas?

Inventory

Now we can start to inventory the organisms in the plot. At first, we don't know the names of anything, but that's fine. We can learn a lot just with our eyes and our hands, without looking anything up.

Make a list of all the plants,plants. including trees, shrubs, herbs, graminoids (grass-like plants), vine, fern. Make up the names and give a rough count forDescribe each one. AreYou therecan multiplescompare and contrast plants to other nearby plants. When you're done observing each plant, give it a name based on its characteristics (for example, tall roundleaf or purpleberry vine). Consider what each of athe particularcharacteristics plant?relate How can you tell they areto the same?plant's Doevolutionary they vary in form?
Describe each one -adaptations.

• FormDescribe
  the
• Tree,form: tree, shrub, herb, graminoid,graminoid (grass-like), vine, fern

Leaves: margins, thickness, texture, color, hairy/smooth, shiny/matte, veins, shape BudsFlowers:

color, shape Color,Fruits: color, size, firmness, any eaten? Buds: smooth/hairy, size, shape, hairycolor Stems or smooth Leaves

Shape,bark: color, thickness, thorns, texture DistributionSeedheads: (quantity/arrangement) Alternate or opposite Petiole or stipule Margins Smooth or hairy? Shiny or matte? Stem/bark

Thorns, diameter, texture, color. Fruit

Color, size, firmness Any on ground? Any eaten? Seedheads

Spread by wind or by animals?animals (shake the seedhead gently)? RootsRoots: (generally,Visible? don't dig up roots)

Visible? Color, thickness,thickness. extentHow Spreadingfar laterallydoes orit morespread downward Flowers

Color. If purple/yellow, probably pollinated by insects. If red, probably birds. Flower type? Simple, compound. Shape laterally? Habit

• Height,Height width,and sprawlingwidth

Sprawling or containedcontained? Dense leaf coverage or lots of sunlight penetrating through? Casting shade on other plants? StolonsSpreading through self-seeding, aboveground stems (stolons), or rhizomesunderground stems (rhizomes)? Are the leaves eaten by insects? Evidence of disease such as discoloration, fuzz, or warped organs? Signs pointing to a lack of moisture or too much sunlight? Is the same plant present in the surrounding area outside of the plot? How Health

Signsmany of diseasethis Potentialplant causesare ofthere? diseaseAre Insectthey activityuniform Moistureor conditions Sunlight conditions varied?

MakeAlso arecord list ofany insects, birds, and any other animals present. Make up the names and give each one a rough count. Describe each one.

Sketch

At this point, it can be helpful to make a sketch of the plot. Focus on general shapes, the overall configuration, and the topology, rather than the details of individual plants. Try sketching from different angles. Indicate which way is north in each sketch,north, and include rough measurements of the plot area, as well as heights of plants.

Human Activity

Now we will look for signs of human activity. What do you notice about

• What are the ways humans have interacted with, managed, or maintained this plot?

Are the borders of the plot defined by bricks, fences, wire, or asphalt? anyAre signagethere plants that go well past the borders? How does that affect humans moving through the area? Is there any signage? Is there art or sculpturesculpture? Do plants show evidence of pruningpruning? For example, cleanly cut limbs. deliberateDoes the arrangement of plants seem deliberately placed by a human? Why?

Does the plot look like it was designed by humans? What was the goal of those designers? If not, how did the plants get here?

Does the plot look like it is regularly maintained? What is the goal of the maintainers? Is there a particular aesthetic or style the gardeners are intending?

Relationships

Now we will analyze the relationships between organisms.
How much of the plot is each plant taking up? doesAre itsome plants out-competing others?

Are nearby plants occupying the same niche, or are do they have complementary morphologies allowing them to coexist? For example, a tall plant with thin leaves surrounded by a short plant with large leaves.

Do some plants, such as vines, seem to be stable,spreading thriving,so aggressively that other plants are unable to survive in the middle?

How are insects interacting with the plants? Are they eating leaves, pollinating flowers, or dyingburrowing back? Why?
Write downin the plant-plant,ground plant-animal,underneath andplants?

plant-human

After revisiting the area at a different time of the year, how have the relationships andchanged interactions.over time? Have spring ephemerals died back, or is a different plant now providing nectar for pollinators?

Identification

Now that we have analyzed by ourselves, we can start to look at external resources. But first we need to figure out their names
in order to look them up. However, all methods of plant identification are imperfect.

• Humans: Ask the gardener

  • Humans are often wrong.

• Photo identification apps: iNaturalist, Plant.net, PictureThis

  • Photo identification only look at the visuals provided, which are often not enough to distinguish between similar species (e.g., American holly vs English holly). Often you need to measure leaves, look at the underside of leaves, feel the texture, look at the habit, etc., which these apps will not tell you to do. They are often overconfident about identifications that are completely wrong.

• iNaturalist: The app lets you upload pictures of organisms to their citizen science database, and other knowledgeable people will help identify (though this may take some time).

• Books: "Identifying Trees of the East", other field guides

  • Books are difficult because in an urban setting, especially in parks and gardens, many species will be non-native and won't appear in field guides. There are books that cover a more cosmopolitan range of plants but they are several thousands of pages long.

• Tree maps: NYC Tree Map, Greenwood Cemetery Tree Finder

• bplant.org has identification guides for telling apart similar species such as white/red mulberry, early/sweet goldenrod, etc.
  These are most reliable because they are written by botanists.

• Forums: reddit.com/r/PlantIdentification. Users can be helpful in providing suggestions but are also often wrong.

• Dichotomous keys: There are various dichotomous keys available on the internet for tree and plant ididentification and they are reliable, but they can be quite technical and difficult to use for amateurs.

• Invasive species lists: nyis.info, Green Oasis Invasive Species guide

Ecowiki has more resources on tree identification, in summer and winter

You may need to come back at a later time when flowers or fruit are available in order to identify a plant for certain.

When assessing a plant description, be aware that there can be great physical variation within the same species. Most guides do not describe how very young plants look, but their leaves are often very different from mature plants. Colorations and marking can very by geography and depending on local site conditions. Use the informationobservations you gathered in the inventory phase to inform and validate your search - if you noted that the leaves are hairy, e.g., look up the plant you think it is to see if it matches.identification.

Once you have a guess, search for similar looking plants and how to tell the difference between them. For example,
if the photo ID app says americanAmerican holly, search "What is americanAmerican holly confused with?", yielding "English holly." Then search
 for how to tell the difference between American and English holly. In parks and gardens, an additional complication is that the plants and trees may be commercial cultivars for which there won't really be any scientific information available online. In general, graminoids are very difficult to identify, especially when not flowering.

InsectYou can also try to identify the insects and Animalanimals Identificationin the plot:

• iNaturalistiNaturalist: either photo ID app

iNaturalist: The app lets youor upload pictures of organisms to their citizen science database, and otherhave knowledgeableothers peopleID will help identify (though this may take some time).them Bees in your Backyard book for bee identification Merlin app for bird identification

Research

Now that you have identified the plant, research online or in books to determine

• Origin: is it native or non-native? Is it considered invasive? Why?
• What is the native range of the plant?
• Is it an annual, biennial, or perennial? If a grass, cool-season or warm-season?
• What sunlight and moisture conditions does it prefer?
• When does it flower and fruit?
• How does the plant grow? Primarily through rhizomes/stolons or through large amounts of seeds?

What other plants is it related to? What wildlife does the plant support? How doesdo thehumans plantuse grow?this Primarilyplant? throughMedicinal, rhizomes/stolonsculinary, orornamental, through large amounts of seeds?etc. For native plants, GrowitBuildit, Lady Bird Johnson Center, North Carolina Extension Gardener, The Plant Native, bplant.org, are all good online resources

Assessment

What do you think about the plants and animals in this plot? Are they good neighbors to the other organisms around them? If you could add, remove, or modify the planting, how would you do so and why?

Additional Testing

If you are intending to plant in this area, then it is useful to get a more thorough understanding of the environmental conditions.

• Field Soil Ribbon Test - texture of soil, sand/loam/clay (GrowitBuildit on YouTube)
• Field Compaction Test - using a soil corer (see YouTube)
• Field Soil Drainage Test (GrowitBuildit on YouTube)
• At-home Mason Jar Soil Test - more reliable way to test soil texture, takes a few days (GrowitBuildit on YouTube)
• Lab soil test - Send soil samples to Urban Soils Lab at Brooklyn College - takes a few weeks. There is sometimes free lead testing offered through the Urban Soils Institute.
• Solar map - On a sunny day, take a picture of the area every 1-2 hours and determine how many hours of sunlight it is getting. You can repeat this every month in order to get an idea of the sunlight exposure of this plot.