Web Sites Helping with
PLANT & ANIMAL
IDENTIFICATION

At this time, in most but not all cases, fieldguides and technical keys with printed pages are still the best tools most of us have for identifying the plants and animals in our backyards.

However, computers are getting smaller and more portable all the time, wireless connection is becoming more common, and new Web sites are appearing all the time with illustrations of thousands of organisms. Also, some sites use a technical-key approach so you can "key out" organisms over the Internet. You might enjoy checking out the following:

shortcuts to our list of other identification sites:

WILDFLOWERS:

• Wildflowers of the Northeastern & North Central U.S.A.
• Wildflowers of the Southeastern U.S.
• Wildflowers of the Bicycle Trails of Western Pennsylvania
• Plants of the New Jersey Pinelands (Pine Barrens, USA)
• Wildflowers of Virginia & the Blue Ridge Mountains
• Wildflowers & Trees of Western Pennsylvania
• Delaware Wildflowers
• Wildflower Index
• ENATURE.COM Wildflower Field Guide

GRASSES & SEDGES:

• Carex drawings (Mackenzie's 1940) - CyberSedge at Texas A&M
• Grass Images - Texas A&M University Bioinformatics Working Group
• Grass genera of the world

SPECIAL PLANT GROUPS:

• Pasture & Range Plants
• The Parasitic Plant Connection

WETLAND PLANTS:

• Aquatic plants/ University of Florida
• Line drawings of Aquatic Plants
• Northeast Wetland Flora
• South Wetland Flora

TREES & BUSHES:

• Native Pines of Eastern North America
• Common Trees of Pennsylvania
• Trees and Shrubs of Ontario
• ENATURE.COM Tree Field Guide
• US Forest Service's online manual Silvics of North America

CULTIVATED PLANTS:

• HORTICOPIA
• FLORIDATA

'WEEDS':

• Weed Identification Guide/ Virginia Tech

MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS:

• World Wide Flowering Plant Family Identification
• USDA NRCS National (USA) Plants Database
• Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia & Georgia
• St. John's University's "Guide to Easy Pollen Identification"
• Carnivorous Plants Database
• Texas Plant Disease Handbook
• Field Guide to the Rare Plants and Animals of Florida
• Den virtuella floran -- Swedish Flora. [in Swedish]
• Nobel Foundation Plant Image Gallery
• Charlie’s Mid-Atlantic Plant Identification Guide

FUNGI:

• Mushrooms of California

BIRDS:

• WhatBird, the Ultimate Field Guide
• Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• The Great Backyard Bird Count Bird Identification Guide

INSECTS:

• The Bug Guide
• Butterflies & Moths of North America
• Caterpillars of Eastern North America Forests
• Virginia Tech's Identification of Insects and Mites Page
• Online Insect Identification from the West Virginia University Extension Service
• Digital Key to the Aquatic Insects of North Dakota
• Ant Identification Key at the University of California
• Large and Showy Moths (Saturniidae) of North America
• Chuck's Butterfly Page
• Iowa State Entomology
• Common Insects of Texas
• Harvard's Museum of Comparative Entomology
• Louisiana State Arthropod Museum
• Florida Insects
• Clemson University
• Hawaiian Insects
• Insects of Australia

REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS:

• Snakes of North America
• Pennsylvania Herpetological Atlas Amphibian and Reptile Identification Helper
• California Reptiles & Amphibians
• Snakes of Florida
• Snakes of Georgia & South Carolina
• Snakes of Western Kentucky
• Snakes of Massachusetts
• Snakes of Missouri
• Snakes of Texas
• Snakes of Virginia