ABSTRACT
Authentication of botanicals by morphology, or the study of a plant’s external form, requires no costly technology, but because plant species are dened by their morphological characteristics, it is in fact the most rigorous possible means of identifying a plant. All other methods, as reliable as they can be, are no more than proxies or substitutes for morphological data; indeed, the reliability of other methods can be fully veried only by observing their performance in samples that have been botanically identied by morphology. Moreover, botanical identication of plants is not an exotic skill that only those with advanced degrees in botany can learn. Identifying plants by their appearance, combined with other sensory inputs such as odor, texture, and avor, is an activity that human beings are naturally adapted to, having relied upon it for survival for hundreds of thousands of years. Most people with a little knowledge and experience in careful observation can rapidly learn to identify the easier botanicals. Therefore, morphological examination ought to be considered the preferred method of authentication whenever a botanical’s form and stage of processing are such as to permit it.
