Mountains - Help

To work the key, look first at the choices with the margin the farthest to the left. There may be two or more possible choices. After selecting a choice, look at the descriptions that are indented below the one you selected. Continue in the same manner.

For example, if you want to know the name of a wildflower with red flowers, click on Wildflowers which will bring you to some selections for wildflowers. Next, click on the appropriate color: Red . This will bring you to some selections for wildflowers with red flowers.

Plants entirely red; no green leaves	Snow plant
Plant with green leaves
Leaves opposite each other	Bridge's penstemon
Leaves alternate
Flowers single
Found near water; flowers nodding	Crimson columbine
Found in dry areas	Scarlet gilia
Flowers forming a dense cluster at end of stem	Giant red paintbrush

First you decide if your plant is entirely red or whether it has green leaves. If leaves are present, then you have two choices for the leaves. Suppose you have a plant with alternate leaves. Next check the choices that are indented under that choice. In this case, it would be flowers singe versus flowers forming a dense cluster at the end of the stem. Make your next choice and continue on as before until you come to your plant. When you have located your plant, click on the plant name, and you will draw up a photo of that plant. This will make it easy to decide if you have found the proper plant. If you cannot decide on a selection, or do not have enough information, merely click on the plant name, and it will draw up the photo of the plant. If that is not your plant, click on the other plant names to see if they match your plant.

Note: in many cases, there will be more than two choices. No attempt was made to make the key a perfect dichotomous key. Because the format of the computer is different from that of a book, I felt it would be easier sometimes to give more than two choices to help in the presentation of the key and to make it easier to work. I have also tried to keep botanical nomenclature to a minimum for those viewers with minimal botanical knowledge. In the event that I have used words you are not familiar with, check out the Glossary for definitions.

When you learn the name of the plant, you can go into the main website and see other photos of that same plant. The easiest way is to use the search engine and put in the common name of the plant you desire to see. Otherwise, you can use the alphabetical index to common names.

Home | Search | What's that plant?