Taxonomy or Plant Systematics, despite what people would have 

you believe, really is not an exacting science in many ways

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This statement mainly applies to the identification process, so 
we’ll start there.

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Identification is very different from classification, which is 
even more problematic

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There are several methods for identifying plants

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Many books rely on matching a description or illustration with 
the plant you have in hand

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Most people first go to books with color photos, but actually 
good line drawings can show more detail

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Books with color photos or drawings often are arranged by 
color, but this is imprecise because of different color 
perceptions by different people, and some genera fall in many 
color categories, making finding the species difficult