#local plants

a few flowers i found on my walk today: lantana & elderflower.

the lantana flowers are so mesmerizing, it's so easy to get lost in their beautiful design.

This is my free bench from Riley (I hope you get the chance to learn how to braid <3) with most of the black stain/lacquer(?) sanded off.

I beg you not to seek immediate gratification when identifying plants (under non-dire situations) by immediately using AI tools to identify plants or even by immediately posting pictures on a plant experts' online group for help. I beg. I encourage you to learn through ✨experience✨ and 🌟documentation 🌟. This is basically applying a simplified scientific method, coming from a person with a formal educational background in biology; this method was used in many college classes I have taken, and it built my foundation for how I like to learn about and explore the natural world. Just because the plant has already been discovered and identified by others, it does not mean you cannot experience the pure novelty and joy in learning it like they did. Embrace your whimsy inner child through this slow, explorative method.

Find a plant you are interested in identifying and observe its growth and lifecycle over a season or even a whole year, if you're that invested. Watch that one plant sprout from the ground at the start of spring, bloom in the middle and fruit at the end. Find and observe different examples of what you think is the same plant in different locations and note any variabilities.

This is perfect for learning nuanced things like how different the leaves look when a plant is young vs. old, how many petals a flower can have, since some plants can naturally have a varied number even within the same plant. Soon enough you'll start recognizing the plant and you may even give it a nickname while you are on this journey of getting to know it.

It's very important that during your observation time you record when you think you've encountered the plant you want to eventually identify. Take pictures and detailed sketches of the plant, and don't forget to note the date and time of the observation!

Half the fun of it is encountering the same plant over and over again until you finally know its name. Like a stranger you encounter in the same spots over and over, you will eventually learn their name.

As time goes by, you may want to start engaging it with differently. It's important that at this point you start studying resources it if you would like to touch or even smell/taste the plant. And I do mean research; look into some botany books (learning basic stem, leaf, flower and fruit anatomy are ESSENTIAL), nature articles, dedicated plant blogs, etc. Anything but directly asking someone to identify something for you right away (save that for the very end); the point of this method is the journey!

Seriously, do not touch, smell or taste anything you're not sure is safe. Even a simple pretty flower can cause irritation just by touching it. There are universally known dangers, and in other cases everyone has different tolerances to the same thing (I, for example, have gotten away unharmed while touching and smelling a lot of things that would harm a lot of people; and I don't play with my luck on purpose). If you're going touch an unknown plant or a known plant with a known risk of irritation, at least wear puncture-proof gloves. If it's smelling, do not smell it directly against your nose; waft it around. And please, do not harvest plants that could be endangered.

At this point, you should know what you're looking for and have at least a few educated guesses of what the plant could be. You can begin to narrow down your educated guesses of what the plant ID is and building confidence by finding your plant of interest where it exists in different locations and conditions.

Remember that for every plant you know there is likely at least one lookalike. That lookalike may not be as safe as your plant of interest, so you must learn to identify both without a shadow of a doubt.

Verify the plant ID down to scientific name, since common names vary and can often be confusing. This is the time in this journey to go to the experts for a final verification. You can do this by directly asking a more knowledgeable and experienced person or community (elders, professors, teachers, naturalists, farmers, botanists, etc.) in person or online, having a discussion with them and learning from their own journey. Getting to this step will allow maximum safety when engaging with the identified plant, since you'll feel confident in your plant ID and know what ways it has been and is used by others.

This explorative method of learning plants has been a great way for me to safely build a meaningful, personal relationship with several plants over my lifetime. You are bound to form your own associations with plants, and that will be more powerful than anything you'll find on a generic list online. Not to mention how much motivation you'll find for exploring new places and going outside more often, and the joy you'll find.

🌟✨Happy frolicking!✨🌟

new project coming in a couple months featuring local birds x local plants :)

As you may or may not know, I used to be a more avid witchcraft blogger - but various jobs, chronic illness, and moving a lot have prevented me from really building my own correspondences based on local flora and fauna.

I thought it would be fun and interesting to look at some of the plants I can find in my own backyard and around Pittsburgh and lightly examine their ecological purpose, historical use & potential for use in magical traditions.

I’ll continue to post basic key points, but if you’d like to follow along and read the full blogs, you can have access for just $1 on my Ko-fi page! Any support helps me to continue building my art presence & share things that are important to me & to experiment on my platform.

Who knows - maybe I’ll even make a little zine or something about what I find along the way!