Plant ID please (with a difference!)

[EssentialHummus]

DD3 is quite into plants. We’ve got a flower press and a book for her, but half the time we can’t identify what she’s picked so can’t label it. Does anyone have any idea what the following are, please?

This may out me for obscurity. If only she was into cycling .

The heart shaped leaf looks like it might be Cercis canadensis.

Do you have any information on type of plant (low growing, bush, tree?), habitat (garden, coast etc.), area in UK, time of year collected? It might help to narrow it down a bit!

And I think the other leaf could be cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus

Thanks all.

Do you have any information on type of plant (low growing, bush, tree?), habitat (garden, coast etc.), area in UK, time of year collected?

We’re in London, all collected locally and recently. The purple flower came in a small (supermarket) bouquet. The oblong leaf came from a bush I think (and both leaves would have been toddler height).

magpie that looks like a good fit, thank you.

If the flower was purple and from a bouquet, I think probably chrysanthemum. Does it have any leaves attached?

Agree with magpie, I think the flower is a chrysanthemum, and the heart shaped leaf is cercis. Not sure about the middle one.

magpie here is a photo with (very dry!) leaves attached.

Thanks Hummus, definitely looks like a chrysanthemum!

It has dried beautifully, takes me back to the eighties when you couldn't move for a dried flower display in every home.

Thanks all. If it’s ok I’ll pop back here with any more of her finds .

OP, you can get the PlantNet app on your phone. Just take a photo and choose whether it's leaf, bark, fruit, flower etc. and it'll give you the suggestions. I find it very useful.

Yes to Chrysanth, think Cercis is possibly correct too. Prunus laurocerasus is a glossy leathery leaf, it could be this, but there are other possibilities I think.

I thought Cercis, but googling, the leaf venation is wrong. Cercis has the veins all splaying out form the base - see for example: www.jacksonsnurseries.co.uk/cercis-canadensis-hearts-of-gold.html
whereas this specimen has the veins coming off alternately all the way off the midrib.

Whoops - I've just seen she's a toddler, so much that follows is irrelevant, but I'll leave it in case anyone else is interested.

A word on mounting the plants - don't use great swathes of sellotape across the leaf, use tiny strips, as few as possible, eg on across the stalk, and one near the leaf tip if absolutely necessary. See for example:
www.botanicalliaisons.com/new-page
The process of drying and mounting a plant, and labelling it with what it is, where it was found who found it and who confirmed the id, is called "making a voucher specimen".

Beware of plant apps. They're basically just mapping pictures and have no concept of when they've got it wrong. Don't mistake them for botanists - regard them as your completely uninterested in plants BIL flicking through google.

How old is DD3? Can you start encouraging her to take "field notes" - where she saw it, whether it was a bush or a plant, was it carefully planted in a garden or did it look as if it had found its own way there? And if possible, a photograph of it?

Good point re the venation. The other thing I thought for the heart shaped leaf was Tilia.

The third one looks like a small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) to me.

The third one looks like a small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) to me. No, I don't think so, because the leaf of Tilia cordata tapers in the upper half whereas this is very full in width almost to the top. In that respect it's more like Corylus avellana (hazel) but the dentition is wrong.

The two bottom veins in Tilia cordata are at 45 degrees to the centre rib, not at nearly 90 degrees like this one

@yamadori Have you come across "The Leaf Key" by Poland and Clement? They've just published a new one, on Winter twigs covering both native and planted species, which I thought you might be interested in. I've got it on my Christmas list.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Thanks for the tip, that looks great.

Thank you all. Looks like it's still inconclusive on the one, but I'm grateful for all the leads.

Thank you for the link mere. DD is very young still but really loves looking through her tape covered book and remembering the names of all the plants she's found, so perhaps something will come of it. Someone on the periphery of our lives is a botanist and seems to have captured her imagination.

The things that got me into botany were 1) learning to recognise all the flowers in the lawn (and there were a lot of them) 2) going with my mother to pick wild flowers at the appropriate seasons - violets and primroses, then wild daffodils (the farmers allowed you to pick for a fee), then bluebells. This was many years ago! - not long after the war.

If you're not already into plant id, the two books in the link are quite challenging. Lots of vocabulary to learn, and a whole new more detailed way of looking at things.

I've come to this a bit late but it's probably easiest to start with native wildflowers/trees rather than cultivated plants - there is a smaller pool of plants to identify, so that makes it easier!

If your DD is 3, she might like the I-spy Wild Flowers or Nature Detective British Wild Flowers books. Usborne spotters guides, the Observer Guides and Dorling Kindersley photo books are good starter books for children too.