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What is a plant under our standards?

                It is everything attached to the ground; part of the plant’s anchor goes under the ground; it has no heartbeats and it must have an external force to move it.

How did we classify the plants?

                Closest to ground (under 1’)

·         Concrete

·         Small green leafy bodies

·         Benches

·         Poles

·         Stump

·         Rail

·         Bush

·         Pipes

·         Stairs

·         Lamppost

·         Building

·         Pipe

·         Large green leafy bodies

·         Small green leafy bodies

·         All other observed plants

Other observed objects that were not classified as plants:

·         Humans

·         Vehicles

·         Sticks

·         Potted green leafy objects

                We had problems with differentiating between plants and objects that appeared similar to those attached to the ground. We were also limited by not having standard tools or a system of measurement to measure size or strength of the plants’ anchor. We initially talked about whether objects (potential plants) were growing or not, but decided that we had not been on Planet Nearer long enough to observe that.  

                What we would do on a next visit:

                We would stay for longer in order to observe the potential growth of plants that we’ve already identified. We would create more classification groups and sub-groups in order to differentiate between the many species (i.e. there were multiple species of concrete). We would create a standard system of measurements.  We would determine what the function was of the plant.