Identifying plants

Forgive me if this is in the wrong forum. We live in Oklahoma and my wife is trying to find all available edible plants around our home on the lake. We've found a bunch but we were having trouble identifying the attached pictures.

There's 4 plants, two pics of each. Purple one is fuzzy.

Also does anyone have a good resource for identifying? We've considered paying for apps that identify but not sure if they work.

Really appreciate any help!!

Hi Jeremy and welcome to Permies! The third one looks like some kind of geranium, perhaps Cranesbill geranium? Though I'm not familiar with the species you might have out there. The second reminds me a bit of Daisy Fleabane, but not sure.

I don't like the plant apps myself, because they don't help me learn how to identify plants, but just do it for me. And not always correctly. I prefer field guides with a key system. I use Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, but it's for the Northeast and North Central United States, so it might not work and could be better to find one specific to your bioregion. I also really like Thomas Elpel's Botany in a Day. It is super helpful for learning to recognize what family a plant is in, which often makes it far easier to narrow down to a specific identification. Of course, you can always post here too if one is stumping you. Pictures of leaf shape, arrangement and flowers are super helpful to get a positive ID. Often, I have to wait a whole season to confirm who a plant is, since flowers are often essential to be sure. Which is a good practice anyways, if you want to be eating that plant. Being able to recognize them in all stages of growth is important for avoiding look alikes that could be harmful. It also gives you a better idea of what that plant needs and what other beings in the environment need them. I've also found that by doing that, I get to know them and can recognize them even from afar.

Welcome to permies. I use iNaturalist all the time out in the pasture. I put your green plant in it, the first one up at the top of your page, and it thinks it is in the aster family. It didn't like the purple picture, there's too much other plant matter in with it. That being said, I take five or six photos of the different parts of any plant that I find - backside of leaves in close up, plant in its habitat, fronts of flowers, backs of flowers, stems, leaf nodules. There's a button right below the photo you upload that says something like what did you find, if you click on that it will give you suggestions. I usually accept the suggestion that looks right and post it to my observations page. Then, other people can weigh in on what they believe it to be. So, not necessarily an instant process, but an interactive one. I've had people from Europe weigh in on some of my observations of plants that they specialize in. I recommend it. Can't remember if you said you were in Eastern Oklahoma, but probably some plant identification walks or classes there. There is Facebook group called central Oklahoma permaculture I think, and lots of other plant groups that could help you find a class. Unless it's a pretty strict plant group I wouldn't recommend any Facebook group for identifications as people will tell you what they guess it is whether they know or not. Oklahoma also has bioblitz at least twice a year,spring and fall, where people teach many classes or will take you out on a nature walk for anything from lichens to snakes.
Good luck and have fun.

Plant identification apps can be very helpful, taken with a grain of salt. But, most of those apps (I've tried many of them) are not so reliable that I'd risk eating anything, with only 1 app identifying it. I've used them to check on plants that I knew, as a control group, and they've been wrong nearly as often as they've been correct. Please use at least 2, preferably 3 or more, and still look up the plants elsewhere (a reliable book, knowledgeable person, etc) before eating them.

To actually learn, yourself, I highly recommend Botany in a Day, by Thomas J. Elpel.

Jeremy, welcome to the forum!

Like you, I like to identify plants on our property so I will know what is edible.

That is how I found the forum back in 2016.


I like to use a lot of resources.

Sometimes, I just ask Mr. Google something like "what plant has these characteristics _____________".  He is a pretty knowledgeable guy.

Another favorite:

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/index.php

I sometimes start with books that I have. This one is a favorite because it has some guides to help:

Reader's Digest "North American Wildlife" because of the identification guide for flowers and trees.

Having resources particular to the state or area you live in is also very helpful.

I am hoping someone can identify the purple one.  I am looking for that ones just need to see the flowers when it gets to be that time of year.

Thank you so much for all the information, we're looking into getting some more books and trying to attend in person events with the experts.

My sister turned me on to a plant ID app called plantnet. It's great and it's free. The icon is black with a green 4-leaf plant on it.