50 Times The Internet Provided Answers To Clueless People Sharing Unpopular Plants

Plants are all around us. One ability stands out as being especially important in the realm of conservation: plant identification.

For individuals working on the front lines of conservation, the ability to correctly identify plants is more than simply a helpful skill because hundreds of plant species, including invasive environmental weeds and rare and endangered species, inhabit our natural regions. Identifying plants involves more than just learning their names.

It also involves recognizing the little features that set one species apart from another. High-level observational abilities are needed for this, and they can be cultivated through focused exercises.

People are motivated to identify plants for a variety of reasons, such as the necessity or desire to manage places like gardens, agricultural fields, restored ecosystems, and/or natural preserves, or their curiosity to learn more about the world around them. Sometimes all you can do is gaze at a plant and wonder what in the world it is—not everyone is a botanist.

Fortunately, the internet is prepared to assist us. Clueless people share pictures of mystery foliage to the subreddit r/whatsthisplant in order to obtain its identity.

The hundreds of thousands of members in the community jump in and frequently share more than just a name; they offer maintenance advice, highlight peculiar aspects, and never condemn you for asking questions. It's good that others can introduce themselves because not all living things are able to do so.

1. Beautiful Picture My Friend Sent Me To Identify

Santa Rita prickly pearmixed-episodes

2. The Pups Keep Digging These Up In The Yard. It Smells Like Garlic And Onions But Not In A Good Way. My First Guess Was Truffles But My Plant ID App Says It’s A Fungus

Truffles are fungi.Rising Sun Redbudimgotcheese

3. What Flower Is This? Is It Real?

RuiYunDian Chrysanthemum. Google showed me similar images when I typed in "flower that looks like icing."Acceptable_Link_6546

4. What’s This Purple Guy? Found Hiking Near The Hollywood Sign. Super Cool Shape And Color:

Daturarossblanket

5. What's This Bush?

Smoke bushColourMeCrazyDoctor

6. What’s This Trippy Fella Called? Found This In A Group Post On Facebook. No Details Including Location

Rising Sun RedbudRelease1975

7. What Is This Fruit My Friend’s Mom Handed To Me?

No offense intended but, where are you from that you don't know this is a pear?reddit.com

8. Cut Open A Peach And There Was An Almond Inside?

Peaches and almonds are related. Do Not Eat Peach Seeds!!!KingofCam

9. From The Japanese Garden In Singapore

Judging by the super pink flower in the blurry back this is probably just lotus. Nelumbo nucifera.blabgasm

10. Found Sitting Alone On A Bed Of Moss In The Middle Of The Woods

A red trillium! Nice find.okaysureyep

11. Seen In Santa Monica, CA. I Couldn’t Get Any Closer But It Looks Gorgeous!!

It's probably a Bougainvillea.arkwl

12. Pulled These Out Of My Dogs Armpit, What Is This?

Nassella leucotricha. It's a species of speargrass. It is engineered to spin itself with changes in humidity, which will self plant in soil. It will do something similar in fur.Previous_Remote_6892

13. What Plant Is This? It Has Pink Flowers… I Was Curious To Whether My Neighbours Are Growing Opium

Opium poppy, but plenty of people grow them as ornamentalsOutlandishnessOk3735

14. This Strange Thing In My Onion Field

Egyptian walking onions do this.They get heavy and fall over, planting themselvesClear_Rise_5005

15. Not Looking For The Tree, Wondering What The Lump Is

Congratulations, it’s a burl!-Glowl

16. What Is My Sunflower Doing?

A sunflower is actually made up of a bunch of individual flowers of 2 different types. The petals around the outside are called ray flowers. The middle is made up of many disk flowers. This one just has a few ray flowers where there would normally be disk flowers.notgingerbutnotred

17. Are These Blueberries? Found Near A Mica Deposit In New Brunswick, Canada

Oh, it’s actually blueberries.. crazysomefishingdude

18. What's This Curly Cactus?

Cereus forbesii cv Spiralis and that is a stunning specimen of it.black_rose_

19. Noticed This Thing Popped Up In Front My Window About A Week Ago And It Keeps Getting Bigger. I Don’t Know What It Is, We’ve Had This Plant For 5 Years And It’s Never Done This Before

Agave only flower once--one absolutely giant asparagus-like flower stalk--and then die. It will make many little pups though.TheNarcissisticNobod

20. A Strange Big Plant

That is 💯 giant hogweed. Observe from a distance only. DO NOT TOUCH!Accomplished-Yak7289

21. What Is This Alien Looking Flower?

Looks like a bromeliad, Puya.Luckydog12

22. What Is This Grape-Like Vine Thing Growing Over My Fence In New Zealand?

Grapesarheff

23. What Are These? The Devils Testicles? I Stepped On One With My Bare Heel And My Life Flashed Before My Eyes

Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua seed pods.cookiemonstrosity54

24. My Sweet Kind Neighbors Who Dont Speak English Very Well Gave Me This... Squash? Because It Was Growing On My Side Of The Fence. Any Help?

It's a long bottle gourd.poisonivy4444

25. Should I Keep This In The Garden?

Monk’s Hood - Aconitum genusIn the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Aka Wolf’s Baneramakharma

26. Watching A Friend’s Plants And Noticed A Nasty Smell In My Kitchen. It’s Coming From This Thing That Just Flowered, What Is It?

Stapelia lolThey smell bad because they attract flies as pollinatorsbaconwitch00

27. Look What They Did To My Boy..

Sometimes I see this type of damage when a caterpillar ate a hole through leaves before they unfurled. The inner leaves have smaller holes bc it didn’t eat all the way through-ExtraRaw

28. Unedited Photo. Deepest Must Vibrant Purple I Have Ever Seen In Nature. What Is This Little Guy (Flowers Are A Penny In Diameter Or Less)

Blue lobeliaGnarlsGnarlington

29. Lived Here 3 Years And Never Saw This Before

Morel Mushroom, Morchella sp.comicconnie

30. Little Plant Growing Where My Cat Was Buried

If it is indeed fleabanejuhbekky

31. Growing Corn In My Garden And Thought My Corn Was Growing Rocks. What In The World Is This!?

Corn smut. It’s an infection. Totally edible though. As a matter of fact in Mexico it’s called huitlacoche and it’s considered a delicacys0njc

32. Found In A Small Body Of Mossy Water Just Underneath A Statue, Slimy Texture And Burst When Slightly Pressed

Wow! So many people have never seen frog eggs yet keep saying that’s what these are. The biggest giveaway that these are not frog eggs is that there are no baby frogs in them!This is a type of freshwater cynanobacteria, much like the common bubble algae that people get in their reef tanks.AntonioGarzaHi123

33. Found The Most Intricate Flower I’ve Ever Seen Today In A Regular Roadside Bush

Passionflower. They're very distinctive!ThatMarionberry5465

34. Strange Round 'Fruit' With Stringy Latexy Insides - Pic Of Tree In Comment

Sodom Apple?Do not eat.blippyj

35. Need Some Help Iding These Blue Flowers That Look Like Tiny Wizards

It's called Corydalis, from mountains of China originally! It's perennial so enjoy for years!twilson1209

36. This Plant Is Not Dead! I’ve Had It For Years And It Has Neither Died Nor Grown. The “Branches” Are Not Particularly Woody Or Stiff, At Least Not As Much As They Look. What Is It?!

It's dead. It's been dead for years.What exactly makes you think it's alive? It's not green, it doesn't grow.BuriedComments

37. Help

Spiral Aloe, Aloe polyphyllaPretty-Initiative630

38. It Looks Like An Orchid. What Is It?

I call them Johnny Jump Ups because my father always did. But yes, violas.melocotonn_

39. What Is This Flower Seen In Paris

The cultivar is called Bumble Rumble!ThunderyIndigo

40. Whats Is The Name Of This Plant?

Aglaonema pictum Tricolor cultivarAraceae familyreddit.com

41. Very General White Flowers.. All Help Is Appreciated!

I put it through google lens, looks like Saxifraga Findling.Variety or Cultivar 'Findling' _ 'Findling' is a low, cushion- to mound-forming, evergreen perennial with rosettes of small, oval to spoon-shaped, mid-green leaves and short stems bearing cup-shaped, white flowers from mid- to late spring.distinct--shuffle

42. I Thought You Would All Enjoy This Chimera Rose, My Friends Parents Have A Red Rose Bush Where On One Particular Branch It Blooms These Beauties

Plant geneticist here!1 Nice rose!2 I bet this was caused by a somatic mutation, specifically a transposon (jumping gene) inserting near something that activates color in petals (a transcription factor or anthocyanin gene). The unevenness could be due to variable epigenetic silencing of that region to keep the transposon from jumping again. The same mechanism causes striped flowers in petunias and morning glories.Anyway, I think it's cool from a professional standpoint and wanted to share. 🙂dishsoapalmighty

43. My Friend Took A Bite, I Said Not To

Rose hips. The fruits of a rose plantBecomeTheMeme

44. Please Help Identify I’m In Love

its a bougainvilleaBiogirl0322

45. Tree In My Neighborhood That I Have Been Wondering About

Caribbean tree cactus!And one of the largest, oldest and most beautiful ones I've ever seen even online. this thing is absolutely awe inspiringcl4ptpbot321

46. My So’s Mother Has This Magnificent Plant, But She Couldn’t Identify It. Can Anyone Help?houseplant Is Located In North Carolina

This woman grew the most epic fiddle leaf fig anyone has ever seen and has the audacity to not even know what it's called?glowphotosglow

47. Moved In To This House Last Fall. I Mowed My Grass 5 Days Ago... And This Plant Sprouted Out Of No Where. 3 Of Them, And This Is The Biggest

AsparagusLana-Next-Door

48. What Is This Spectacular Yellow And Pink Tree?

Looks like a Redbud to me, too. I've never seen one with so many blossoms coming directly from the bark like that. A few, but not such dense clusters. Very pretty.By the way, those pretty golden newborn leaves will be regular ol' green leaves in a few days.BenevolentCheese

49. Found This On A Stroll In Vancouver

monkey puzzle treeTrail_Blaze_R

50. Just Caught 5 Y/O Son Eating One Of These Berries, Made Him Spit It Out Soon As I Saw, ID Please? Located In East Sussex, UK!

This plant has been identified as Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna.) OP's son ate some of the fruit, experienced mild poisoning symptoms and was treated by a local emergency room. The child is now ok. The doctor commented that the child was lucky he did not consume more of the fruit. This occurred in the UK.reddit.com

The above highlights the significance of watching children and refraining them from consuming any odd plants you come upon. If in doubt, get guidance by calling poison control or take the person or animal that has consumed the plant material directly to the doctor, emergency room, or veterinarian if you are unable to speak with anybody over the phone.

It is crucial to remember that if you suspect someone has taken poison, you should not make them throw up. You run the risk of choking on vomit, and plants can occasionally be caustically toxic, so vomiting will do more harm than good.

The choice to induce vomiting should always be left to medical experts.