I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this question but there are
surely some botanists who have thoughts on this.

I am a mature age amateur botanical artist who is interested in progressing
to try some illustration work.

I have checked several web sites and many illustrations, but there seems to
be no set standard format of just what features of a plant should be
represented in an illustration.

So far I have seen the following depicted but not all on the same specimen.

a. Habit
b. male flowers and inflorescence
c.male flowers top view
d.female flowers and inflorescence
e.side view of female flower
f. stipule
g. under surface of leaf
h. close up of under surface of leaf
i. bud side and front view
j. individual petals and open view of petals
k.seed pods
some show cross sections, some don't

Is there such a thing as a standard format or is it just up to the
illustrator toshow what they think?
Is there also a better or best means of showing the scale I understand it is
not sufficient to show 'life size'; x1; x.5 etc. as this becomes
meaningless if an illustration becomes reduced

Gramma