Botany in a Day Botany in a Day Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification is a book by Thomas J. Elpel published by HOPS Press, LLC. The book emphasizes family characteristics for plant identification. Related plants typically have similar floral features and often similar uses. For example, plants of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) have four petals with six stamens (4 tall, 2 short), and most or all of the 3,200 species are considered edible. The book is used as a text at universities, high schools, and herbal schools across North America. It is also recommended as a resource for the
Ramification (botany) Ramification (botany) In botany, ramification is the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, i.e. trunk into branches, branches into increasingly smaller branches, etc. Gardeners stimulate the process of ramification through pruning, thereby making trees, shrubs and other plants bushier and denser. Short internodes (the section of stem between nodes, i.e. areas where leaves are produced) help increase ramification in those plants that form branches at these nodes. Long internodes (which may be the result of over-watering, the over-use of fertilizer, or a seasonal "growth spurt") decrease a gardener's ability to induce ramification in a