What's That Plant? How to Use Botanical Keys to Identify Common Irish Wildflowers - For Beginners!

Want to identify a wild plant, and don't really know where to start? Don't know your lobes from your lips from your pistils?
What is a plant family? or a genus and species name?
Learning to identify wildflowers can be tough at the start but with a little knowledge of the basic terminology, botany skills are within your grasp, and you might even get hooked!

Dr. Cara Daly Waterford Institute of Technology programme leader for the BSc in Horticulture (and a plant scientist) summarises some of the botanical terminology you will encounter in the plant identification books and explains some family characteristics of a few of the most common plant families found in Ireland.
Families covered in depth are Fabaceae, Asteraceae, and Brassicaceae, and to a lesser degree, the Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, and Apiaceae. Using images and video she's collected, and footage from her microscope, let Cara bring you on a botanical voyage until you're confident enough to attempt to ID that weed in the hedge.

If you want to get in touch, Cara is at www.instagram.com/hortwaterford

Music courtesy of www.bensound.com