Materials Included In Kit

Safety Precautions

Follow standard precautions for working with plant materials. Wash hands when work is completed. Caution students to determine any plant allergies prior to lab. Please review current Safety Data Sheets for additional safety, handling and disposal information.

Disposal

The pressed wildflower samples may be saved and used as many times as desired. All items in this kit may be disposed of according to Flinn Suggested Disposal Method #26a.

Teacher Tips

• Nine pressed wildflower samples are included in this kit. Each packet of wildflowers will contain a representative sample. Divide students into nine groups and give each group a wildflower sample. Have students rotate flowers as needed for each procedure.

• Make multiple copies of the Wildflower Name Identification Key and Wildflower Identification Data Table for student use.
• For the flower not found in Flower Finding guide, have students use family name instead to find characteristics.
• The wildflower samples may be saved and used as many times as needed. Keep the wildflowers in their original packages to help with preservation.
• Additional wildflower guides may be purchased from Flinn Scientific (Catalog Number FB1280).

Further Extensions

• Obtain a package of wildflower seeds from a local flower shop or grocery store. Locate an area suitable for growth and plant the wildflower seeds according to the directions on the package. Once the flowers have germinated, have students identify the flowers. Other studies may be performed on the flowers (e.g., germination rate of seeds, growth over time).
• As another extension to the given activities, have students classify existing wildflowers (or other wildflowers) in your area using the guide provided. Consider taking a field trip to a local prairie or forest preserve to locate the most diverse populations of wildflowers.
• Emphasize that wildflowers should not be picked from the wild! Many wildflowers are very rare and protected by law.
• As an optional project, ask students to photograph and classify individual wildflowers on their own. You may even want to have students choose an individual wildflower and write a report on that flower. Information, such as unique structures, growing area and conservation practices or techniques, may be included in the report.

Sample Data

Part I

Teacher Handouts

10369_Teacher1.pdf

References

Watts, M. T. Flower Finder; Nature Study Guild, 1955.

Introduction

Wildflowers are everywhere! They come in every size, shape and color. How are various groups related? How are they identified?

Concepts

• Plant identification

• Plant classification
• Dichotomous keys

Background

Wildflowers are one of the most beautiful aspects of the natural landscape. They are found in every part of the United States in areas as diverse as woodlands, wetlands, beaches, deserts and mountain slopes. In fact, there are more than 15,000 recognized species of native plants in the United States and Canada. Many new species are discovered every year.

Some wildflowers are very rare and are even protected by law. When viewing flowers in the wild, always remember never to pick or walk on the flowers. The best way to capture the beauty of wildflowers is by taking photographs. Photographs are also valuable tools to identify the structures of a flower.

With such a wide array of flowers in the wild, how are they classified? Wildflowers are composed of many unique structures. The charts on the following page illustrate some of the structures and botanical terms that are used to classify the flowers and leaves of wildflowers.

Wildflowers are generally classified using dichotomous keys. A dichotomous key is a flow chart that helps narrow down the species, trait by trait. The first type of key that will be used in this activity is a generic key that will help you identify the names of the unknown wildflowers to be identified. Characteristics, such as flower color, number of flowers and other easily recognizable traits, will be used. Once the names of the wildflowers are identified, a more comprehensive guide will be used to further identify some of the wildflowers’ more specialized traits (such as those shown in the Botanical Terms Charts PDF).

Materials

Procedure

Part I. Identifying Wildflowers

1. Obtain one preserved wildflower sample.
2. Record the characteristics (e.g., petal color, shape, size) of the wildflower sample in the Wildflower Identification Data Table, Part I in the space corresponding to the sample number.
3. Use the Wildflower Name Identification Key to determine the common name of the wildflower sample.
4. When looking at the key, multiple options are listed at each numbered step. For example:

1a. Flowers are yellow…….Go to Step 2
1b. Flowers are not yellow…...Go to Step 3
Choose only one of the options at each step (i.e., if the flowers of your sample are white, continue on to step 3). Work your way through the key until the wildflower has been identified.

5. Record the name of the wildflower sample in the Wildflower Identification Data Table, Part I in the space provided.
6. Repeat steps 1–5 for the remaining eight wildflower samples.

Part II. Wildflower Features and Structures

1. Obtain a Wildflower Guide and a known wildflower sample.
2. Use the Wildflower Guide and “work backwards” through the key starting with the name of the wildflower. Do this by looking in the Wildflower Guide index for the name of the wildflower sample.
3. Find the corresponding page number for the wildflower sample.
4. Work backwards through the guide by looking at the identifying feature box before the wildflower’s name. Record the identifying feature and description in the Wildflower Data Table, Part II.
5. Find the previous identifying feature box by looking at the previous few pages. Once the identifying feature box has been found, record the feature and description in the Data Table.
6. Continue on recording the identifying features and descriptions until the original feature in the wildflower guide has been reached.
7. Repeat steps 7–12 for the remaining wildflower samples.

Student Worksheet PDF

10369_Student1.pdf