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Malta Rocky Beaches





Identifying Plants
So many plants, but how to identify them?
The first step in identifying plants is that of direct observation of key features including flowers and leaves.
Let's look at flowers first


Characteristics such as flower colour and number of petals can be taken into account. In this case both flowers have purple petals with flower 1 having more than 10 petals and flower 2 having 5 petals.
Let's look at leaves now


Looking at colour and/ or number of leaves is not very helpful. When it comes to observing leaves, one takes into consideration (i) leaf shape and (ii) leaf margin.
(i) Leaf Shape
Below is a list of the main leaf shapes of coastal vegetation.










Cordate
Elliptic
Palmate
Ovate
Pinnatisect
Round
Trifoliate
Lanceolate
Reduced to spines
Linear

Ovate
(ii) Leaf Margin
Leaf margin also called leaf border helps to better identify a plant. The four common leaf margins are presented below.




Smooth
Serrate
Undulate
Prickly
Identification is best achieved by combining as many characteristics as possible. A key is an efficient tool to help identify plants based on a collection of characteristics. An identification key for coastal plants can be found in the 'Key' section found in the 'Activities' tab or by clicking on the button below.
![]() Tamarix africana | ![]() Galactites tomentosa | ![]() Fedia cornucopiae |
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![]() Anagallis arvensis | ![]() Calendula arvensis arvensis |
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