Teaching young people about plants and specifically, teaching botany, provides important skills – and recognises the importance of plant knowledge in growing food and food security and climate change. Additionally, plant science teaches us of the valuable ways natural materials are produced by plants, or using plants, for what people need.

Knowledge of plant naming, botanical classification, using keys, recognising species, hybrids and cultivars is fundamental in plant science for land-based industries. As a teacher, have you got promising students aiming for higher education in botany, ecology, or an environmental career? Have you got students who are already focused on agriculture, or regenerative agriculture, the environment or food production?
Plant naming is a valuable skill. If you can master the skill, you can share this confidently to the future botanists, environmentalists, farmers, fisheries or forestry and ALL other land-based professionals!

We get it. Some, in fact many, young people find learning plant names overwhelming; but it really doesn’t need to be, and there are so many important reasons to learn them. Once learners become familiar with the system, identifying, growing and using plants becomes so much easier. The system is called plant taxonomy.

This kind of plant knowledge forms a foundation for lots of different careers. Teachers can teach biology better when they know the system of taxonomy. Farmers and gardeners can make better choices about what they grow, and how they grow. Landscapers can create better functioning and more aesthetic landscapes. Plant knowledge is an essential skill for urban greening and fighting climate change.

All plants are divided into groups called Families. That is according to how closely they are related to each other.

Like naming people – plants have a first name and a surname. You understand that in peoples’ names the surname is the larger group, and the first name is the individual. The scientific name of an organism normally comprises of two words; therefore, it is called a binominal term.

So, this is the same for plants. Those families are then broken further into groups called “genera” which share more characteristics than others in that family.

Let’s think about a common family – the MINT FAMILY (i.e. Lamiaceae).

Mint family plants have:

1. four sided (almost square-shaped) stems,

2. leaves that sit opposite each other on the stems,

3. and tiny oil glands (often scented) on the leaves that might need to be magnified to see.

Other than Mentha – the most obvious mint plant genera - you might be surprised to know that Rosemary (Rosmarinus), Thyme (Thymus) and even some natives including Prostanthera and Westringia are also classified in this genus (singular for genera).

There are lots of practical learning opportunities which can be used to teach plant taxonomy. 

Give students pieces of plants from the Lamiaceae family, and others from different families.

Ask them to look for the four-sided stems, opposite leaves and oil gland dots, then separate the mint family plants from the others. 

Simple exercises like this can help students build their ability to see details in anything; and at the same time build their capacity to identify plants.

This is a great professional development program for educators teaching biology. For educators or teachers feeling like their subject knowledge is lacking, this course offers more than a solid grounding. Plant taxonomy and botany is extremely useful for school leavers seeking to find work in environmental management, farming, horticulture, and even cooking.