The differ greatly in size, shape, and the type of environment in which they live.
After a day of thunderstorms and cold weather in mid May ( well May 16th to be exact) it was surprising to walk through the wild garden and see all the changes. I thought things might not look that different due to the cold weather. Wrong! It was very different.
There were so many green leaves plus yellow, purple and white flowers. It was amazing to see. The garden had exploded with color and plants. From a distance all you could see was green with little bits of yellow, white and purple dots but when I walked slowly and looked closely each plant was different. Each plant species has its own characteristics.
A characteristic is anything you notice about the way a plant looks or where it likes to grow. These differences in plants are called variations.
The plants vary in many ways. The plants vary by the number of leaves they might have in a group, shape of the leaves, what color the flowers are or when the flowers might bloom. Botanists use these differences or characteristics to help identify the plants.
Take time to look at these plants I found today and see if you can make a list of the characteristic. How are they the same and how are they different?