Now things are beginning to flower in earnest, as well as revisiting my photo flashcards, I’ve started making myself some mini-keys for flowers which it’s either likely or possible I’ll find in the south east of England. Making your own keys is a learning exercise Dr M – Jonathan Mitchley – gives his students to do and my inner process designer really enjoyed it. It gives your brain a good work out too.

My objective was to reduce info in my favourite field guides to the bare minimum visual information necessary – cutting out species which don’t grow in the south east – rather than expand on it.

I’ve started off with violets as you can see from this pic. The stars represent a strong preference for a particular soil type – red for acid, white for chalk. The letters in italic represent likelihood – c common, fc fairly common, r rare, vr very rare – as applies to the south east. Over time I’ll probably add in drawings too.

Obviously the test is whether they work in the field, and then ideally I need to learn them. They’re going to be unashamedly-south-eastern-biased simply because I’ve got to start somewhere.

Any thoughts/comments gratefully received…