The second part of a key is finding the family

•

There are roughly 450 families of flowering plants in the 
world, with around 160 for California

•

Because the majority of our natives belong to 40 to 50 diverse 
families, learning the field traits to recognize them helps 
greatly in the i.d. process

•

For horticultural families, especially including tender indoor 
plants, the number of families is vaster and thus more difficult

•

Families consist of anywhere from a single species to 20,000 
or more (orchids and composites)

•

Most families have a cluster of 

key

features that aid in i.d.; 

we’ll be practicing those during the course