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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

Tamarix africana

Galactites tomentosa

Galactites tomentosa

Fedia cornucopiae

Fedia cornucopiae

Anagallis arvensis

Anagallis arvensis

Calendula arvensis arvensis

Calendula arvensis arvensis

All the material found in this website is under copyright of the authors of this site- Daphne Agius, Sephora Debono /www.maltarockybeaches.com /Malta. (2012-2014)

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