Observing & Recording
Plant Identification
Learn the families first, and the roadside stops being anonymous green
A photo-ID app is a fine start, but what gets you off it is learning families: once you can feel what makes an umbellifer or a brassica, an unfamiliar plant is still half-placed. This is not foraging — nothing gets eaten, so a wrong call costs you only a wrong name. City weeds are the best teaching material there is.
First stepPick five weeds on your street, look them up with an ID app, and note the leaf shape and family of each.
Barriers
Cost to start
Free
Going deep → $50–300
Alone or with people
On your own
Effort
Light
Without a teacher?
Self-taught
One session takes
1–2 hours
Where
Outdoors, free
Why people take it up
Skills
BuildsIdentifying plants ↗