Originally Posted by John

No, I have worked with native plants for about 40 years and it is just
intuitive by now. Now as far as a logic tree or modus operandi, I
would recommend accumulating books on plants with good photos or line
drawings and just comparing an unknown plant to these. After a while
you get used to putting them into categories that match the way plants
are classified and named. I do not know if you can do this
effectively online as you only see one plant at a time and you need a
name to even find that.

For instance, if you sit down with Enquist's "Wildflowers of the Texas
Hill Country" and start perusing the photos you will come across
Solanum triquetrum sooner or later and the similarities will give you
the genus, Solanum, of your unknown. Then you can go through
individual species online and figure out what you have.

Rusty Mase
Austin, Texas

Hey Rusty..
Got another wierd one for ya..I am finding Bastrop must be the burmuda
triangle for wierd bugs, critters and plants!
I was poking around in my back woods, spraying the damn greenbriars with
roundup and found a couple of really odd vines. The vine is very thin and
has few leaves but what is odd is the fruit growing on it..They look almost
exactly like grape tomatos..Same color, size and basic texture. Only
difference is the fruit last a long time and don't seem to be bothered by
the local critters..One of these is actually growing up in a cedar tree..The
other one is on the ground..Anyone ever seen such a vine?
Been fighting those dang greenbriars..Found the only way I can kill them is
to make a very strong mixture of roundup in a spray bottle and carefully
spray them..The ones too close to other vegitation I pull out but these
things are mean..Some folks say "dig em up" but there is no way..Too many..I
figure if I keep killing the vines off the tuber will eventually get a taste
of the roundup..I stick plastic under them so the roundup doesn't get on the
ground too..Being very careful! :-)

John