Welcome to this collection of photographs designed to help with the identification of basal and juvenile leaves of plants in the wild in Britain and Ireland
Comments are more than welcome to make improvements, although adding further information to each photograph is not possible
It is intended as a guide only, as plant leaf shapes and sizes can vary. To use the collection, type what you are looking for in the search bar above, or use the 'Plant Families' tab if you know the family. You can search for plant photos by partial or full common or scientific names, or by genus, species or family
Both common and scientific names have been taken from the New Flora of the British Isles, edition 4 (2019) by Clive Stace, published by C&M Floristics
Many plants are still to be added to the 590 I started off with. The intention is for this to now grow with the help of all who wish to contribute
If you would like to offer a photo for a species, whether a new species, a variation of a species' shape, size or colour, or a better photo than already here, please do so. I will of course credit you by adding your name as the contributor of the image.
Microspecies, hybrids, grasses, sedges, rushes, ferns, some rare trees and submerged aquatics are not included, as currently I deem them too difficult to ID as juvenile plants, but may add them at a later date
The requests for photos are:
Click here for an Excel sheet of plant lists with a search facility by scientific name (a common name convertor is included)
If you have a query or would like to offer photographs to add to the project, please email me at: richardmabbutt@aol.com
Many thanks to all my botanical friends for help with this project, with advice, locations and identifications. You are all a part of this, and I am extremely grateful
In particular, I would like to thank Tim Rich, who threw down the botanical gauntlet to me when I bemoaned the lack of a resource like this in 2018
Special thanks to Mark Cooper for building this website, and Sally Peacock for making the Excel sheet