I have some seedlings coming up in my compost. They smell a bit like basil, but they could just as easily be weeds. I’d like to know if there are resources for identifying plants at this early stage of growth.
You could wait a week or two and allow the seedlings to develop, which might make identification a little easier. However, there are various resources online for identifying plants, especially weeds, at the cotyledon (seed leaf) stage.
- Illinois State Weed Science is one example.
- University of Minnesota Extension has a weed seedling photo collection.
- University of California, Davis Integrated Pest Management has a guide to weed identification which in most cases displays images of seedlings as well as mature plants.
There are also print resources which illustrate plants at the seedling stage:
- Seeds of Woody Plants in North America by James A. and Cheryl G. Young (Dioscorides Press, 1992)
- Woody Plant Seed Manual prepared by the Forest Service, USDA (1948), also available online
- Seeds: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Vegetables, Herbs & Flowers by Sam Bittman (Bantam Books, 1989)
- Park’s Success with Seeds by Ann Reilly (Geo. W. Park Seed Co., 1978)
- Park’s Success with Herbs by Gertrude Foster and Rosemary Louden (Geo. W. Park Seed Co., 1980)
- Weeds of the West edited by Tom Whitson (Western Society of Weed Science, 2000)
- Weeds of California and Other Western States by Joseph DiTomaso and Evelyn Healy (University of California, 2007)