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
Nutation (botany) Nutation (botany) Nutation is the bending movements executed by some plant organs, such as stems, leaves, roots, etc., by which the part is inclined successively in various directions. Nutations are due to the unequal rate of growth of different sides of the organ, an inequality which, so far as is known at present (c. 1915), is dependent upon internal (unknown) causes and is not called forth by the action of external stimuli. The word is often used in a broad sense in the phrase "nutational movement", to include all the movements in plants caused by growth in contrast to "variation