AI-assisted practical guide. Examples are hypothetical; proposed workflows are editorial suggestions.
Missing plant labels need not stop a flowering record. Use temporary identifiers that let you track the same plant while leaving its identity unresolved. The record can improve later without rewriting what you observed.
Create a temporary identity
Assign a code and photograph the plant with enough surrounding context to relocate it. Record its position on a map. Keep descriptive notes separate from a tentative name; a guess should not become the archive's permanent organizing key.
For each visit, describe visible flowering and the date. A missed visit remains missing, not evidence that flowering stopped.
Follow a hypothetical identification change
Suppose Plant P7 was first labeled “unknown purple flower.” A reliable reviewer later provides an identification. Add that name, the source, and the date of review to P7. Retain earlier photographs and observation dates under the same code.
If two nearby plants were accidentally grouped together, document the split and identify which older observations remain ambiguous. Do not force every historical entry into the new certainty.
Use the record appropriately
The notebook can show when open flowers were observed on P7. It does not establish a universal flowering calendar for the species. Compare with regional guidance when planning future planting, and retain the site-specific conditions. Stable identifiers make an imperfect record useful; they do not require you to know every plant on the first day.