From Native Trees to Plant Families - Here I Begin

Fabriano Sketchbook

8.5" x 11"

While researching the native trees of Vancouver, I realized how little I know about botany.  (This is pretty sad, considering how much I enjoy being in nature.)  There are so many terms that I don't really understand, and at the top of the list is "families".   So, I decided that my next project would be to learn about Plant Families.

One of the great web sites I discovered was E-Flora BC, which is an electronic atlas of the plants of British Columbia.  They have a page on plant identification, and one of their recommendations is Thomas J. Elpel's Botany in a Day.  He explains that there are about 100 plant families across the "frost belt" of North America, and about another 30 families south of the frost line. He begins with seven of the largest and easiest to learn families which are found world-wide.

And so here I begin also.  Will I learn all 100?  I'm not sure I can manage that, but who knows.  I am pretty persistent, as evidenced by this blog. LOL

On this journal page I document my first three families.  I also connect the dots to the Tree Project by noting the eleven families to which the native trees of Vancouver belong.  So, I already have some familiarity with fourteen families!