Field Studies Council Guide to Describing Flowers

The Field Studies Council flowers guide describes and illustrates the main characters used in identification. These include:

• Overview of flowers: whorl, calyx, sepals, petals, stamens, carpels
• Flower symmetry: actinomorphic and zygomorphic
• Perianth: anther, filament; shape and arrangement
• Carpel: stigma, style, ovary, ovule; inferior and superior ovaries
• Leaf: venation, arrangement, position, margins, bases, shape, stipules; simple and compound leaves

Text on the reverse side includes a checklist of the main characters you can record in the field. We’ve also included a guide to writing a floral formula, and to describing fruits (berry, drupe, achene, nut, capsule, etc), plant form (herb, shrub, tree), organs of vegetative reproduction (stolon, rhizome, etc) and inflorescence (spike, panicle, rhizome, etc).