To identify an item is to recognize the item and associate it with its appropriate name. Such as, that tan automobile in front of our house is a Honda Accord. Or, that large woody plant in the park is a tree, more specifically a Doug-fir. Identifying a landscape or garden plant requires recognizing the plant by one or more characteristics, such as size, form, leaf shape, flower color, odor, etc., and linking that recognition with a name, either a common or so-called scientific name. Accurate identification of a cultivated plant can be very helpful in knowing how it grows (e.g., size shape, texture, etc.) as well as how to care and protect it from pests and diseases.
First let’s look at some common characteristics of plants that are useful in identifying them. Now if this was a botany class dealing with plant systematics, the field of study concerned with identification, naming, classification, and evolution of plants, we would spend a good deal of time on the reproductive parts of plants, i.e., mostly the various parts of the flowers, i.e., ovary, stigma, etc. Structural similarity of reproductive parts is an important means by which plants are categorized, grouped, named, and hence identified. However, with many horticultural plants, especially woody plants, we may have to make an identity without regard to flowers, for often flowers are not present or are very small, and other characteristics may be more obvious. Some plants characteristics are so obvious or unique that we can recognize them without a detailed examination of the plant. Similarly, we can probably all immediately recognize a Volkswagen Beetle among a group of cars in a parking lot.