Update 5/10/09: I guess it’s working again. Yay!
Update 7/14/08: Before you get too excited, several readers have tried the link below and it hasn’t been working. Sorry about that folks! It was working when I posted this!
My friend Barbara told me about an on-line Wildflower Identification website for the Northeast. (The site has links to keys for other parts of the country, too.) I tried it out on a flower that I already knew, just to test how it worked. All you do is check boxes and click the Identify button. My screen looked like this (except there were boxes with checkmarks, rather than an ‘x’ in front of my choices:
Check the characteristics that you see (you can always hit “Back” and change these later).
Petal-like Parts
3 petals
4 petals
x 5 petals
6 petals
in a head (7 or more petals): cluster of stalkless (or nearly stalkless) flowers
tubular petals
irregular petals: lipped, lopsided, not symmetrical
Flower Arrangement
single flower on stem
x several flowers on stem
cluster or spike of flowers (a spike is a long cluster, with the flowers along the stem)
in an umbel (flowers in an umbrella-like cluster, with stalks radiating from one point)
Flower Width
1/8 of an inch or less flower width
x 1/8 to 3/8 inches flower width
3/8 to 5/8 inches flower width
5/8 to 1 inch flower width
1 to 2 inches flower width
2 inches or more flower width
Flower Color
whitish flower color
pink to red flower color
yellow to orange flower color
brownish or greenish flower color
x blue to purple flower color
When in Bloom
blooms in April or earlier
blooms in May
blooms in June
blooms in July
blooms in August
blooms in September or later
Plant Height
plant height one foot or less
x plant height one foot to two feet
plant height two feet or more
Leaf Petiole
x leaf petiole present (has a leafstalk)
leaf petiole absent (has no leafstalk)
Leaf Arrangement
x alternate leaf arrangement on the stem
opposite one another leaf arrangement on the stem
arrangement of leaves on stem is whorled (three or more from a point)
Leaf Edges
x smooth leaf edges
leaf edge has at least 4 teeth per inch
irregular leaf edge
deeply cut leaf edge
Leaf Veins Appear
parallel leaf veins
x branched leaf veins
Simple Leaves (one per stem)
simple leaves about as long as wide
x simple leaves about 1 1/2 to 5 times as long as wide
simple leaves over 5 times as long as wide
Compound Leaves (many per stem)
compound leaves are trifoliate – three leaflets radiating from a point
compound leaves are pinnate – leaflets arranged along a midrib
compound leaves are palmate – leaflets or lobes fan from one point
Stem
stem creeps or twines
x stem is hairy or spiny
stem is square
When I clicked the “Identify” button, I was given two possible flowers… Before you click on “The rest of this entry…” (or scroll any further) to reveal the answers, do you have a guess?
Here’s what the program told me:
For these characteristics:
- 5 petals
- several flowers on stem
- 1/8 to 3/8 inches flower width
- blue to purple flower color
- plant height one foot to two feet
- leaf petiole present (has a leafstalk)
- alternate leaf arrangement on the stem
- smooth leaf edges
- branched leaf veins
- simple leaves about 1 1/2 to 5 times as long as wide
- stem is hairy or spiny
The following wildflowers match:
True Forget-Me-Not
Viper’s Bugloss
The flowers listed in the results link to a full list of characteristics. Each flower listed will also have the word “Photos” in parentheses after it… which links to a google image search – sometimes useful, sometimes, not so much… My flower was…
It’s a pretty neat website, easy to use! If you don’t know the answers to some of the categories, just leave them blank. Your list of possible flowers might be longer because of the lack of detail. Want to try? Click below:
http://www.realtimerendering.com/flowers/flowers.html
I’ve added this link to my right sidebar, in case you lose it and need to find it again…
A Passion for Nature 
Nice, that seems like a great tool. Thanks for posting it.
I used your description and came up with forget-me-nots ! It works pretty neat.
There are also links to tree identification and bird identification on the same site . I am always trying to identify the unusual things I come across in my nature journeys, so these three programs are going to get a work out!
Thanks for the website address–I will check it out!
Very cool website! Will have to use it from time to time!
Thanks for the links! I checked out one that should be very helpful for me it the west.
This tool is really cool! Thank you very much for sharing it. Sometimes I make pictures of the unknown flowers and have no idea how to search for their names. Now this problem seems to be solved.
Thanks for the link. I find it much easier to use the bird guide than the wildflower guide I have.
Neato, I’ll definitely run my next wildflower conundrum through it! Thanks for sharing.
Pretty cool Jen. thanks for the link
Thanks for the link, Jennifer. I bookmarked the one for the West. It leads you to photos categorized by color. So that would be quite a few photos to go through, but it’s still helpful.
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June 25, 2008
I tried the website twice; this si what I got:
Not Found
The requested URL /domaincgi/flowers.cgi was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
OOOoops…
The website has this message posted:
SORRY!
I’ve switched to a new ISP and now my Perl script does not work on the new system – foo. I’m working to figure out the problem.
And if you try it anyway, you get the error MikeB posted. Looks like they haven’t figured it out yet…
Foo is right. Sorry to my readers. The link was working when I posted this… Honest!
The standalone version of the Wildflower Finder worked fine for me. I had been trying to identify Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) for months, spending hours searching photos on the internet. I was all set to take a 35 mile drive to the Cornell Cooperative Extension for a plant ID, when I took 1 more shot at it, and found your site.
Turns out, while I was planning to cultivate this colorful plant around my property, everyone else in the known universe is trying to kill it! Apparently, Purple Loosestrife is an invasive and competitive destroyer of wetlands, and is unavailing to native wildlife!
Guess that’s the end of THAT project. Saved in a nick of time. Thanks!