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What plant family does this exquisite wildfower belong to?
General News · 15th May 2020
Rigel & Christine
Plant Family Riddle

I come from a large family with bulbs or fleshy roots.
I have parallel-veined leaves.
My flowers are often large & showy.
Some of my bulbs are edible.
What plant family am I? (answer below)

Rigel suggested this great plant activity as part of the collaboration series between the Children’s Forest Trust and the Cortes Family Group. Here’s a family activity focussing on plant families.

Choose one or more of the main plant families and go looking for different plants in that family. How would you know a plant belongs to a specific plant family? How do you know your friend belongs to their family? We know by similar appearance, possibly by living together, maybe by name. Well, it is similar for plants. The mint family is known for having square stems, opposite leaves, and aromatic oils. Other common plant families you might choose are: pea, mustard, carrot, rose, lily & ferns, and there are more

Rigel suggested that you could collect one, and one only, specimen and keep it to share in the kid zoom chat next week. You could also draw it in your nature journal (remember to add the date & location), or you could take a photo. We agreed that if there were very few plants in an area (such as a rare Fairyslipper orchid) that you would not pick any; in which case, a drawing or photo would be great.

How many different plant families will you find?

(the Lily Family)