Books for plant classification?

AgnesCalhoun1

I'm looking for recommendations on best books that I can get for classification/identification of common wild and garden trees/shrubs/flowers that can be found throughout Ireland. Any suggestions?

looksee

One of the best for wildflowers is The Wildflowers of Ireland by Zoe Devlin. I haven't bought a garden plant one for years as I find they go out of date reasonably quickly and the internet is more up to date.

nullObjects

Google are trying to develop an app that can do that if that was any use to you too:

https://lens.google/

It's a little hit and miss to be honest but might be fun to play around with

looksee

I find google lens far more 'miss' than the previous version, and I would not use it to establish classifications or even identifications - it can just about manage 'thistle' or 'sunflower' but otherwise helpfully tells you 'this is a plant'.

Bill Hook

Maybe borrow a few books from the library and see which one(s) suits you best. My favourite wild flower book is Sarah Raven's Wild Flowers which covers the UK and Ireland. My most useful one is A Field Guide in Colour to Wild Flowers by Dietmar Aichele which was a random purchase in a charity shop a few years ago.

vintcerf

there are a number of plant identification apps for mobile now and they are quite accurate (genera and species). they use trained models based mostly on crowd sourced images.

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2022-01-21-how-accurate-are-photo-based-plant-identification-apps

The Continental Op

Two I wouldn't be without

Collins Field Guide to Trees

Collins Field Guide to Wild Flowers

Edit> While checking my bookshelves I also spotted this Plant Names Simplified: Their Pronunciation Derivation and Meaning . No pictures just a big list but I believe the latest version includes some classification information and best of all allows you to pronounce the proper latin plant names without feeling you've got it wrong. Rubus Cockburnianus anyone?

I suggest that you source a book with actual good quality photos.Some authors attempt to pass off drawings which are on occasoion questionable.

The camera doesn't lie.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119657765#Comment_119657765

You need both. There is a reason that botanical specimens are drawn to provide the information to define the plant. The human eye can see and reproduce information that a photograph can't. In fact it doesn't even matter what the discipline a hand drawing is always used along with a photograph when as much information as necessary needs to be captured.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119658527#Comment_119658527

You may need both.

A good book with requisite photographs will suffice.

looksee

It's down to personal preference in the end, but I agree with TCO that botanical drawings give better detail while a photograph gives an overall effect.