Botanical guide. The Plant Finder

The main goal of the authors of this guide is to help you to spot the types of plants and mushrooms that are all around us. We really want to tell you interesting things about them.

“Worth Seeing” is our section on Latvia’s most interesting botany-related nature trails, including information about huge and/or interesting trees of various species, alleys of trees, botanical gardens, dendrology parks, other types of plant collections, museums, interesting farms, etc. You can visit each of them for yourself. We chose destinations in all of Latvia’s historical regions.

“Plant and Mushroom Routes” contains a list of ready-made routes, al- though we suggest that you bring along a guide to make sure that you en- joy the route thoroughly. Still, you can take the trips individually, adapt- ing the process to your own interests and capabilities.

“Plant Finder” is the biggest and most important part of the guide. There are included the photos of more than 400 different most common plants, lichens and mushrooms species in order to help you to recognize them in the field. Each species has got some interesting facts or stories as far as its possible.

“Protect and preserve” is our list of all of the protected species of plants which are often plucked for bouquets and other compositions, often with the person not even realising that he or she has picked a protected plant. These are species which need to be left alone right where they are.

This guide can be used as a workbook in your practical observations. Each of the «Worth seeing» objects has a check-box. Mark the sites you have visited. In the «Plant Finder» section, write the date you spotted the plant in the line «When ... », and the name of the place in the line “Where...”.

With the contribution of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Communitys under the project POLPROP-NATURA (LIFE07 ENV/LV/000981)