Obviously the more information you have about a plant the greater the chance you have of making a correct identification.
If you have the plant in front of you, plant material such as:
leaves
fruits
stems
and flowers
can set you well on the way to working out exactly what the plant is called. These clues, when used with a good plant identification book, will help you to come up with the unique botanical name of the plant.
However, often a customer may ask you about a plant that they cannot really describe. If they can give you the common nametrade name this will help, but these names are not always consistent throughout Australia. A sample of the plant, with as many of the features I have already mentioned as possible, is always great.
Really, the only fail-safe way of identifying a specific plant is to find out its botanical name.
Are you having trouble understanding all the scientific jargon? I know I did when I first started out. But I think I've got it fairly straight now.
The plant naming system used today is based on the work of Carolus Linnaeus way back in 1753 - just a bit of information that could come in handy at your next quiz night.
He invented the binomial system of naming plants that gives each plant a two word name - genus and species.
Sometimes you may see a third scientific name. This is the family name but you are not usually required to know this unless you are going on to advanced studies in horticulture or botany.
This botanical name, sometimes referred to as the scientific name, allows every plant to be specifically recognised worldwide.
e.g.
Family name
Genus
Species
Common name
MYRTACEAE
Eucalyptus
camaldulensis
River red gum
Usually written in capital letters although this varies throughout Australia
Written in sentence case
Always written in lower case
Usually written in sentence case
The common name is also used to identify plants however, there are problems with this because the same common name can apply to a number of plants.
For example, a customer recently asked me for a plant her friend had recommended - a plant with purplish/blue flowers called a butterfly bush.
I hadn't heard of this before so I looked it up in the plant reference book, which gave me three separate results for butterfly bush:
Bauhinia purpurea
Clareodendron ugandense
Buddlea davidii
purple flowers
blue flowers
white, purple or yellow flowers
Once we found each of these in the nursery the customer was able to pick out the one her friend had shown her - it was Buddlea davidii.
The terms used in the botanical names of plants may have a number of origins.
After you've spent some time in this business and had lots of practice you'll find that you will be able to recognise many plants just by a leaf, flower or specimen of fruit.
These parts of the plant are known as plant features and also include:
leaf and flower shape
leaf and flower colour
seeds
stems
bark
timber
Even the aroma, or smell, of a plant is considered a feature and can be used to help you identify it.
Some of the pleasant smells associated with plants are lemon, peppermint, rose and eucalyptus.
Unfortunately not all plants have nice smells - the common name of one plant is smelly socks because its flowers smell like well-worn, unwashed socks!
I am often asked what the difference is between a product, a treatment and a service. Actually they are very similar and the key is in what is done with the item.
The term product refers to the actual item that has been produced and is being sold (e.g. bottle of weed killer, bag of fertiliser).
The term treatment refers to the application or use of a product (e.g. a weed killer being sprayed on weeds in a lawn, a fertiliser being sprinkled onto plants).
Another term that you will hear in association with products and treatments is a service. This is when a treatment is contracted out to a company (e.g. the local lawn mowing service is paid to mow, fertilise and spray your lawn for weeds).
There are so many products and treatments on the market these days that sometimes it is easy to get confused. I find it much easier to group them into broader categories such as the ones below:
Which section of the horticulture industry you are working in will influence what type of products and treatments you come in contact with on a daily basis.
You will need to find out as much as possible about the products that you sell so that you can give customers accurate, informed information about what product would be best for their particular plant, problem or project.
But how can you find out this information?
I find that it is good to gather together a wide variety of information to give you a balanced view of a product. Obviously the advertising on the product packaging or in their brochures is going to give a glowing report on how good the product is. And this may be absolutely correct.
But be sure to:
talk to colleagues
listen to what customers have to say
read any reports in magazines or newspapers
check horticultural information in library and workplace reference books
ask about the product at your horticultural training course/centre.
The more information you can gather, then the better the overall picture you can get of how effective the particular product is, its strengths and weaknesses and in what situation it is best used.
