Many decorative dried botanicals have been modified to some extent from their original form. At a minimum, most specimens will have been dyed and/or scented. Some will be easily recognizable as a particular plant part, but others will no longer look at all like the plant part they actually are. For instance, leaves may be woven or cut to look like flowers. We have tried to account for this in the construction of the key. However, it is still recommended that the user maintain a certain degree of flexibility in the selection of states. If you are not sure which plant part you have, either skip this feature, try using the “Other or difficult to discern” state, or choose more than one state to avoid excluding your specimen.

Wood

Stem or modified stem - Though often stem slices are easily recognized as what they are, quite commonly stems are found fashioned to look like something else, particularly flowers. Here are a number of examples of decorative stems and modified stem slices:

 

 

 

 

Wood shaving or bark chip - These are fairly commonly found; below are the representatives of this type of material that are included in the present version of this key: