Organization of the Search Results

• The basic arrangement is by the large taxonomic groups, in this order:
  1. Monocots.
  2. Dicots.
  3. Non-Flowering Plants.
• Within that, the arrangement of the subgroups is by flower shape, in this order:
  1. Simply Shaped Flowers.
  2. Oddly Shaped Flowers.
  3. Apetalous Flowers (no obvious petals).
• Within that, the arrangement is by petal count, starting with low numbers and increasing as you go down the page.
• We have tried to put the families with more variability among its members near the bottom of the different groups and subgroups.
• The large Dicot group has banners to help indicate the beginning of its subgroups.

You should expect to see oddballs within each of the groups because the basic unit of organization is by the taxonomic "Family." For example, some families have individuals with different petal counts and shapes. Consequently, there may be flowers with four or six petals showing up within the section of five petaled flowers, and vice versa. Similarly, you may see simply shaped flowers showing up within the odd section, and vice versa.

In addition, many characteristics, like the petal count and color, should be used only as a guide rather than a firm identification trait since any particular individual of a given species might violate the typical trait. Indeed, sometimes whole populations, if they are well isolated, can vary from the norm. This does not even begin to touch on the possibility of hybridization between different plants, which affects a number of the plants in the Park.

In essence, if you think you have found your flower by following this overall organization, but you want to make sure of the identification, it would be wise to peruse the other sections for your flower as well.

Philosophy of Organization

The organization of the Search Results we've used here follows a tradition in flower guides of presenting the flowers by families. The reason this tradition exist is that it groups together flowers that look alike based on the idea of "Familial Resemblance." However, when comparing flowers our tendency is to look at gross features like size, shape, and color, which may not always be features of family resemblance. This means we should expect to see some differences in these features between family members. So do not be surprised if you sometimes see flowers that do not seem to fit with the others it has been grouped with. To aid with this the Finder's search characteristics allows us to search on several of these gross (but unrelated) traits.

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