plant-field-notes
Plant field notes
Field notes record a plant as it was found, in enough detail that the observation still means something later: to the person keying it out at home, to a herbarium curator, or to a community science platform. Botanists describe a plant part by part in a fixed order, because identification keys ask about specific features (leaf arrangement, leaf type, margins, flower parts, fruit type), and a feature not written down in the field is usually impossible to recover.
The identification is always kept separate from the description. The description is what was seen and measured; the ID is an interpretation with a confidence level and the features that support it. That separation keeps the record useful even if the ID turns out to be wrong, which it often does.
Field notes are a record, not a guide to use. Never treat an identification in these notes as a reason to eat, touch, or use a plant.