If you are on your own, without an expert nearby, you'll have to do more work. If you haven't yet learned to key out plants, you'll need to use pictures.
Using pictures can be extremely frustrating; here are tips to do it more efficiently.
First, note where on which trail your plant is blooming. Note whether the plant is a shrub or not. Note whether the flower is symmetric or not, the number of petals, their color, whether the leaves are opposite or alternate, and what the leaves look like. Write these things down, and take a pix if you can.
Many times, someone else at the SRP can later tell you just from that information what the plant is. Ask someone at the Visitor Center if it is open. Look through the SRP picture book; maybe you'll get lucky and find it there. (I'll fix the picture book in the next month!)
If you get no match that way, you can email me with that info and any pix. Usually the location is the most important thing for me to give you the id!
If someone gives you a name, check the plant list to see if that plant is on the list. If so, confirm the id with a picture.
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/how_to_id/29.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 16 October 2003.