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How to Identify your plants | For Recently identified plants |
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Lots of you will have access to useful books like Les Robinson's "Field Guide to Native Plants of Sydney" but there may still be times when, in spite of all your searching books, a positive ID eludes you. At times like that I have found it useful and helpful to turn to the staff at the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney - the Botanical Information Service where they like you to limit the number of your specimens to 6. To get their help it is best to have a fertile Herbarium Specimen (i.e. one with flower and/or fruit) of each of the plants you want identified. I find specimens fixed to an A4 sized card are usually ok. Occasionally for plants with bigger leaves, or grasses when I try to make a specimen of the whole plant I use an A3 size mount. Specimens should be numbered and a duplicate set of specimens be retained so that each name can be compared with the appropriate numbered specimen when the list of determinations is returned, I usually drop in to the herbarium to leave the unidentified plants and visit again to collect the specimens when they are identified. Herbarium contact details:
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Making a Herbarium specimen | Much of the following is the work of Gary Shadforth formerly from Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. It was published on their website some years ago. |
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Over 400 years ago people discovered that if freshly
cut plant specimens were dried while being pressed between two
absorbent surfaces they will retain the majority of their
characteristics. These dried specimens, in conjunction with some
written information about the plant, make a Herbarium specimen.
Herbarium specimens have been used over this time as a means of
studying plants for their physical features as well as for studies
of ecology, conservation and taxonomy. They could also be considered
something of a work of art in themselves. To make the plant press you can follow the instructions below or or get some extra help from one of the links shown below. The specimens should include flowers and/or fruits, leaves, stems and in the case of herbaceous plants (other the orchids) should include stolons, rhizomes and /or roots. Sufficient plant material should be collected to cover the specimen folder (about 44cm x 28cm). Some plant specimens may need to be folded or multiple samples collected to fulfil this requirement. The second part of the specimen is the information label placed in the bottom right hand corner of the support card. This contains all the relevant information about the sample. | |
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What you need to make the plant press:
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| How to make a plant press more simply | How to make a plant press (youtube video) |
Collecting the plant specimen. Make sure that you have permission from whoever owns the land before you collect any plant material. Also, think about the impact your plant collecting will have on the environment. Is the plant rare? If you are collecting weeds, you will be doing the area a favour. Your plant specimen should have as many different features on it as possible, including leaves, flowers, fruits, seed if they are present. Collect material to cover an area up to 45cm x 30cm. |
Write down the information about the specimen on a small piece of
paper (this is very important as it becomes the second part of your herbarium specimen)
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 | To press your plant specimen Place the plant in between two sheets of newspaper. Place this in between two sheets of corrugated cardboard (see figure 1). Repeat these steps for another sample. When you have built a sandwich of plant pressings place in the plant press and tie the rope tight (see figure 2). Make sure you check the newspaper every two days to see if it is damp. If it is damp, replace it with two new sheets of newspaper, otherwise your specimen will go moldy. |
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To mount your plant specimen you need: A piece of paper (about 150 gm per sq.m.) and store them in a plastic slip-in envelope available in folders for about $2.
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After it is identified you can seal the envelope with tape to keep out insects. |
A bit like a snapshot of history and possibly a very significant record as we approach a time of global warming. |
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Recently discovered plants at Tumbi Wetlands Bushcare |
| Click on Tumbi Wetlands Bushcare for feedback to the group. | ||
| Return to What's in Flower | Back to Plant Identification | Home |
| Some of the following plants are yet to be identified; others have been easily identified or are already known from some other location. | ||
September 7 2009 | Two Acacias. |
| This plant and the next one were found during the August flowering time for these two wattles. Both would have looked like the dominant Acacia longifolia without their flowers as they have the same long narrow leaves. This is why they haven't been seen before. The first one was found as the small tree photographed in early August could be Acacia floribunda. Let you know when it is confirmed. |  Top of Page |
September 7 2009 | |
| This second long leafed Acacia was found late in August and was found as a shrub 1 to 2 metres tall. It is could be Acacia elongata. |
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June 19 2009 | A fairly large fern. |
| This plant was found growing in a damp region downstream from a stormwater drain outlet, after the bush regenerators had cleared away the Blackberry. It is Blechnum nudum. |
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June 19 2009 | A little fern. |
| This plant was found growing in a grassy woodland under a group of small melaleuca shrubs.
It is Pellaea nana. |
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April 9 2009 | Plants with roots in the water. |
| This plant was found growing beside Persicaria strigosa, visible in the background, with its dark green leaves and white flowers, and the water fern, Cyclosorus interruptus, listed below.
It is Alternanthera denticulata, the species name being because of the tiny teeth (which you can just see in the highly magnified inset) along the edge of the leaf. |
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| This plant was also found growing beside Persicaria strigosa and is the water fern, Cyclosorus interruptus.
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February 6 2009 | Another Goodenia. |
| This Goodenia may have been seen before but it wasn't recognised as a different species.
Staff at the NSW Herbarium are have delivered an ID for this one. It stand only about 30 cms high, has a basal rosette of leaves and a spike of flowers that open progressively as the spike grows taller. The flowers are about 1 cm across and without stalks. It is Goodenia bellidifolia. |
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October 2008 | A "new" native orchid named. |
| This orchid was first found in September 2006. Recently a small outcrop of these flowers was found in September 2008. It has been listed previously on this site as species unknown.
Research by staff at the NSW Herbarium has decided that this is a hybrid similar to one first identified 30 kms away. It is to be known as Thelymitra "Chain Valley Bay". All that remains is to see the two parents here. |
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| A new plant identified | |
| This Hibbertia had been confused with Hibbertia empetrifolia as the flowers were very similar and appeared about the same time but you can see that the leaves are very different. It is a weakly erect shrub to about 0.5 metres high, quite common in shrubby understoreys of woodlands. Flowers in early spring and right through Summer to Autumn. However the flower is only about 1 cm across. It is Hibbertia riparia. |
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| A sedge identified | |
| This Carex sedge produces flowers and fruits during a very brief month and then all signs of the infloresence fall away, leaving it in a state that can not be clearly identified for much of the year. It is Carex fascicularis . |
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| Another Pultenaea | |
| This Pultenaea which began flowering in very late September has leaves with the cross section of P.paleacea and P.polifolia. It is Pultenaea paleacea. |
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Edited on ... August 21, 2009