New to the world of plants...can anyone identify these for me?

[GardenDreams]

I have only recently, at the age of 50, fallen so very deeply in love with plants and flowers. My family were keen gardeners, which is rather ironic now, since they are no longer here, so would love some gentle guidance!

I am seeing so many wonderful things absolutely everywhere, from parks to urban streets. I am enchanted with it all. I currently won't be planting or growing my own, but I am an artist learning to incorporate them into my painting, and am fascinated by the microscopic beauty, the shapes and colours, each with their own unique personality. As you can likely tell, it is like having fallen in love, and I can't stop taking photo's everywhere i go.

Is there a decent book to get me started learning more about them, both wild and cultivated (UK)?
Wiki is great but it is too convoluted for a beginner, so something thorough but not so overly-scientific?

I would also love to identify the plants in my photo's, so am posting a couple that particularly intrigue me.

1)The cluster by the red brick wall contains a variety of sorts, but I am specifically interested in the little pink flowers on red stems - these trail out like a rope when unfurled from the wall. (with close up added)

2. The spiny 'fronds' (no idea how to describe them!) were part of a clump of trees and shrubs outside of a little Tesco. They have tiny little black things stuck to them in close ups and I would love to know what they are! (also with a close up added)

3. These charming beauties remind me of kings and queens, they are so very like old fairy tales to me. I am certain that for most of my life I have walked past ALL of these wondrous personalities and ignored them! Hard to believe, now:)

i think this is a good shout. Definitely not horsetail.

And I don’t think the little black things belong to it.

I wondered if it was something with the leaves stripped by some caterpillar, I have a plant that had leaves earlier in the year but now looks like that!

Possibly oak from the shape as a PP said. Normally for a tree in winter you’d look at shape, bark, colour and shape of buds and their arrangement on the twigs, colour of twigs, whether they’re downy or hairless, etc. And of course, what is making up the carpet of dead leaves beneath.

Botanists are used to trespassing

Picture This is another good app OP. We went to a talk at an arboretum last week and were told that the only certain way to identify trees is by their fruit and flowers. At which point we were shown leaves on an oak tree which looked like willow! So don't be disheartened by struggling with trees, you definitely aren't alone.

I like the Roger Philips books - good photos. They're arranged by flowering time, so you wouldn't get daffodils showing in June, but you can also look things up by common name or botanical name. I often just browse through.

There are also lots of apps, where you can look things up by petal colour, number of petals, leaf shape etc. Location and soil type can also be useful information, but often one doesn't have more than the barest info.

I wasn't expecting more replies, such a wonderful thing to read over my first coffee! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share information and lead me forward into learning so much more.

I may explore the 'frondlike' shrub or tree when I next visit Tesco and get a better, wider shot. It was amongst many other leaves and shapes in a cluster along the quieter part of the car park. This particular clump was around 6ft tall.

My first 'awakening' seemed to begin with Forsythia in February/early March....just glorious. All of this had been surrounding me, all along. Mind blowing really. Now, it has become an almost distracting passion.

Will be checking out the books, definitely. I have been incorporating them into my painting in recent months, very much loving the watercolours of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Cedric Morris, etc.

Oh! as for Cotinus coggygria, I checked this and although the fronds aren't purple, some of the surrounding leaves were (although have no idea if they were attached to the same shrub!).

Here are some of the leaves I shot nearby:

There are non-purple cotinuses (cotini?) Some change colour towards autumn. Mum had one, can't remember which variety.

If you get interested in ferns, I recommend Martin Rickard's book.

cotini? No!! [shudder]

the only certain way to identify trees is by their fruit and flowers. Up to a point. You can identify by vegetative characters, but it requires incredibly good attention to detail. Your lecturer was making the point that for a beginner going by leaves alone isn't going to work (which is why there are so many species names like "hederifolia" - "leaves like an ivy", or pseudoplatanus "looks like a plane (but isn't))

If you want to identify something that doesn't have flowers on Clement and Poland is the accepted text

Of course, the only certain way is to look at the DNA.

The leaves on your original photo did look like the Cotinus. The purple leaves on your new photo are that colour because they have died and the plant has retrieved the useful nutrients, include all the green stuff.

But if you’ve got the latest iPhone, when you take a photo, I think it’s on the preview, there’s an i button which if pressed does the same pattern-matching id function as all the other apps.

I'm not sure the iPhone one has any specialist training on plants, which some of the other apps may. The pattern matching may or may not be the same but the training data set, how well it's labelled etc can make a huge difference to the accuracy. One thing that's not yet clear to me is which, if any, are using location data.

I've just tried the i button on my iPhone with some recent photos. Generally ok but - until I zoomed in/cropped differently .... I think these screenshots demonstrate the limitations!

Identification apps work by matching patterns in the test picture to patterns in another set of pictures. They’re trained on a set of picture and told whether they’re right or wrong. By “specialist training on plants” what is meant that the set of pictures they’re trained on is a big set of plant pictures, not that they have botanical training (Sorry, @ErrolTheDragon , I know you know what you’re talking about, I thought others might not)

Someone did present an app the other day - think it may have been chatGPT, though, which works differently - which did identify what it was looking at had opposite rather than alternate leaves.

Yes, I’m sure @ErrolTheDragon is right. IPhone is a general app, trained on ‘everything’ so it can “id” flowers, fungi, birds, beetles etc.

OP there are some people on YouTube who go round botanising. They might be worth a look. Just check they're in the UK for British plants. It interesting to see the wild plants that have found spots to live in the most unpromising places, softening the edges of supermarket carparks for example.

If you’re on facebook, try Wildflowers of Britain and Ireland. But not for garden flowers or wildflowers growing in a garden.

I suppose that must be continus, especially if it was in Tescos. Often seen in supermarket car parks. Before I read the post I thought for a moment it might be dodder. Not likely as I've only seen it once in 50 years.

My go-to book is Keble Martin. £10 will get it on Ebay.

Too stiff and branched for Dodder, which relaxes into the contours of whatever it is growing on. I used to see it on our N Devon childhood (and teenage and young adult) holidays, almost swamping the gorse bushes.

Keble Martin is excellent but a bit out of date - there have been a lot of changes of nomenclature

I'm a keen gardener, but don't know much

I have a passion flower vine and every year the fliers fascinate me

So vivid and pretty

So much to think about, and some great info here, thank you again to all!

I have my Roger Phillips 'Wild Flowers of Britain' book here (ebay) and have had my head stuck in it all day - day off! Also ordered the Herbs book by same author, only £3.

I have been painting nasturtiums today. Trying to get familiar with the leaf veins. Life has been pretty rough personally for the past 18 months, so all of this loveliness and a new passion have really perked me up.

I have also loved looking through this section of the site, you have some very beautiful gardens.

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