Can you identify the plant life?

By April Campbell (Aunt_A)
January 03, 2009

It is your turn. Welcome to a plant lover's puzzle! Here are 42 plant pictures without a label. Dave's Garden members seem to be able to identify hundreds of plants within minutes (and sometimes seconds). How long will it take you to identify all of the pictures in this article? The pictures are of plants at the Tulsa Zoo. Puzzle and plant people, the race is on! Ready; Set...

One of my great nephews celebrated his birthday this year at the Tulsa Zoo. First, we enjoyed a picnic lunch under the trees, then we enjoyed the zoo together. As well as totally enjoying three babies and their families, I found a secret life at the zoo. I had never before focused a lot of attention on the zoo plant life. For some reason, the beauty and extravagance of the plant life stood out to me this summer.

My husband and I returned again about a month later with the lofty goal of taking pictures of every plant in the zoo. While I did not succeed at that goal, I did capture hundreds of images. The best pictures were selected here for you to puzzle over and enjoy.

FYI: The Tulsa Zoo won the "American's favorite zoo contest in 2004.[1]

The zoo was loaded with plants, many in full bloom, both in climate-controlled buildings and outside. I was really surprised at the rich variety. Plants ranged from the mundane and common to extraordinary. It almost seemed like we were visiting a garden instead of a zoo.

Now it is your turn to enjoy the beauty and puzzle over the plants. I wonder how quickly all of these plants can be identified on Dave's Garden? For your convenience, there is a number under each plant so you can post threads about any plant in particular. I have not researched any of these, although I can identify quite a few of them (and I took pictures of some of the tags).

READY...SET...GO!

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8	9

10	11	12

13	14	15

16	17	18

19	20	21

22	23	24

25	26	27

28	29	30

31	32	33

34	35	36

37	38	39

40	41	42

Oh, and by the way...we saw a few animals, too.

A 1	A 2

With apologies to a famous New York telephone commercial starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca that we quoted as kids, I offer the following: "Most people go to a zoo to see the animals; but, oh no, not you. You've got to go over to the zoo for the plant life. And how much does that cost you?" "800." "800 dollars?" "No, 800 cents."

There were three times as many plants as shown here. I have other pictures, but the article would have been much too long and slow to load. Also, we had only enjoyed half of the zoo plants when my fully charged camera battery died. It is a good thing my dear husband is patient and does not mind my plant focus; he continually stopped to wait for April to get the perfect picture of another plant.

Obviously, we need to return to the Tulsa Zoo soon so I can snap pictures of the other half of the zoo. I think this time, I will bring an extra battery and plenty of space on our memory card. Perhaps your city zoo is also populated with hundreds of plants. Have you visited the plant life at your local zoo? Or, perhaps you would like to know what gardening sites are available near you. Just visit Go Gardening right here on Dave's Garden.

I hope you enjoy the plant puzzle! If you have any trouble identifying any of the plants on this article or any plants in your back yard, you can always visit Dave's Garden PlantFiles. Dave's Garden also offers a wonderful discussion group where fellow gardeners will help you identify mystery plants and trees from your own garden or city. Click here for the Plant and Tree Identification Discussion Forum.

Meanwhile, please post your puzzle guesses in the comments section below. (Hint: picture number 32 has Goldenrod in the background.)

^[1] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/nov04/11-24tulsafavezoopr.mspx

Happy Birthday, dad. Thanks for encouraging mom in her plant growing hobby. You are loved!

About April Campbell   Writer, Speaker, Accountant, Gardener, Teacher, Sign Language Interpreter, Friend, Inactive Real Estate Agent. I love plants but don't grow as many as I wish. The garden in my head is better than the one in my yard. However, I plant at least one tree every year and have left every home with a little more green than it had before. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them.

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Discussion about this article:

Subject Topic Starter Replies Views Last Post Can you ID this bush? Jazz22 1 8 Oct 29, 2009 7:06 AM My guesses rntx22 7 89 Jan 8, 2009 1:53 PM Plants Acemoose 1 17 Jan 7, 2009 1:13 AM Here goes.... annlees 1 29 Jan 6, 2009 12:17 AM Tulsa Zoo plant puzzle minoa65 1 23 Jan 6, 2009 12:14 AM my guesses ReetPetite 1 18 Jan 5, 2009 9:14 PM My guesses Sue_in_Corsica 1 29 Jan 5, 2009 9:12 PM I think... garden2love 1 32 Jan 5, 2009 9:10 PM I love the Tulsa Zoo! gardenfinds 1 25 Jan 5, 2009 9:10 PM My guesses gothqueen 1 42 Jan 5, 2009 9:08 PM Hmmm.... podster 4 64 Jan 4, 2009 7:21 PM Tulsa zoo plants Hemophobic 3 48 Jan 4, 2009 6:05 PM #18 sagebrushsteppe 1 30 Jan 4, 2009 5:36 PM Name that plant at the zoo steadycam3 1 45 Jan 4, 2009 5:32 PM Tulsa zoo rbtkew 1 53 Jan 4, 2009 5:30 PM

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