It will help you to recognize plants if you notice how they change with the seasons. We look upon plants as being static because animals move around, and plants don’t. But plants change more in a few months than we change in a year. I’ve taught people to recognize mature plants in summer and fall, but when they came back in the spring the same plants looked so different that I had to show them how to identify them all over again.

When I taught myself to identify plants I'd usually first learn to identify the mature plant, with its distinctive flowers or fruit. Then I'd search for progressively less mature plants nearby and learn to recognize them. After a while I was able to amaze people by identifying plants (that are familiar when they are large) in early spring when they’re smaller than a fingernail.