Bioregional Ambassador Activity: Native Plant Identification

This field activity encourages Cascadians to engage more closely with the ecology immediately around us. By using either the adjacent plant guide resource links, a web based plant identifier, or your personal knowledge, select a native plant within walking distance of your home and submit the Filed Guide Form on the page about it.

Suggested Materials: 

  1. A smart phone or camera
  2. Journal or Notebook, with a pen

Activity: 

  1. Go outside. Right… now! 
  2. Walk around where you live, whether it is a house or apartment.
  3. Take pictures of all the different plants or trees, even just walking around a block, or within 50 feet of your house.
    1. How many different plants were you able to find?
  4. Using the resources on the right, do some research until you find one that is a “native plant”. If you can, answer these following questions: 
    1. What was the indigenous name for the plant? Where did the name come from?
    2. What is the general range where this plant grows?
    3. Are there any medicinal or food uses for the plant?
    4. Are there any bugs, birds or animals that this plant helps?
    5. What are some other neat facts you learned and didn’t know? 
    6. How does this plant change in each season?
  5. Feel free to repeat with as many plants as you like! 

Contribute to our Bioregional Field Journal: 

Now, using the form below, feel free and share a plant! 

Photos encouraged! Your contributions will be included as part of our native plant directory sited across the bioregion.

Click or drag files to this area to upload. You can upload up to 10 files.

Plant Guide Resources

Encyclopedia of Cascadian Plants
http://nativeplantspnw.com/ 

Atlas of BC Plants:
https://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/ 

USDA Plant Database: 
https://plants.usda.gov/home