How To Identify Plants At The Santa Rosa Plateau: Plant Evolution
Therefore, some plant species will be easy to separate; others will be difficult and confusing.
There will be arguments about whether some plant species should be separated or combined.
The best keys take advantage of whatever characteristics vary the most between species AND reliably go with each species. However, even the best key will still be confusing for confusing species.
Some of the worst keys are written by botanists who again try to do two things at once: provide a key AND indicate evolutionary relationships. These keys sometimes rely on very obscure, difficult features. If you have one of those, find a different key!
Note: species are not defined by whether they can reproduce with another species or not. Plants are promiscuous; species often can and do reproduce with each other, and the hybrids can reproduce themselves indefinitely.
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/how_to_id/19.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 16 October 2003.