SUNLIGHT
The first part of categorizing plants can be tricky, but is absolutely crucial: finding how much sunlight is needed. The leaves of a plant are vital to the production of flowers and the overall well-being of the plant.

+ Moonlight
When a plant is labeled thusly, it means it requires reflected light to grow, rather than light that comes from a direct source.
Usually, this means that the plant thrives in the moonlight.
This is different from plants that require shade, as these plants are often nocturnal and strongly linked to the lunar cycle or used in potions revolving around lunar magic.

+ Shade
Plants with this designation should be kept from too much sunlight.
As the title suggests, a nice, shady spot is best for these. However, there is a bit of a spectrum, ranging from “deep shade” to “light shade.”
-Deep shade is reserved for plants who thrive on the forest floor, where the light never reaches the ground, Light shade” usually just means that the plant does not do well in large amounts of direct sunlight, particularly in the afternoon, and should be planted away from the sunset, like on the east side of a hill or among taller plants.

+ Partial Shade or Partial Sun
For partial shade, the plant should receive the three to six hours of sunlight in the morning to early afternoon,
Partial sun, the plant needs more intense late afternoon sun.

+Full Sun
A plant that needs full sunlight requires at least six hours of exposure to sunlight a day.
It does not matter overmuch when those hours are, just so long as it gets them.
Additionally, those hours do not have to be consecutive. That is, the plant does not have to receive six straight hours of sunlight but can get three in the morning and three in the evening.

COLORATION
The second part of categorizing plants is quite simple and relates to colour.
Plants are categorized by both flower and leaf or foliage colour. The first has categories that are pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, and black.

TYPE
Before reading through these categories, please note that it is possible for a plant to be more than one (or even quite a few) of these things all at once.
There are eleven catagories.

Annual
A plant with a lifespan of a year (or less). A large amount of plants fall into this category, such as basil and morning glory.

Biennial
A plant with a two year lifespan. Forget-me-nots, black-eyed Susans, and Hagweed all fall into this category.

Perennial
A plant which lives a relatively long period of time (as compared to previous categories), such as trees.

Bulb
This type of plant stores energy to keep through winter, and usually does not possess seeds. Lilies are one example of a plant that is categorized as a bulb.

Evergreen
A plant that keeps green foliage throughout the year. We have many non-magical and magical evergreens in our Great Hall every year for Christmas.

Fern
A plant that has feathery or leafy fronds. They reproduce with spores, rather than seeds or bulbs. Shatterferns are an excellent, though delicate, example of a fern.

Herb
An herb is any plant with flowers, leaves, or seeds which may be used for medicine, flavouring, food, or perfume. This vague definition allows almost all plants to be categorized as herb, hence the reason this subject is called Herbology!

Moss
This close-growing greenery likes very damp places and can grow like a carpet. Interestingly, these plants are one of the few that do not need any soil at all to grow, and therefore can grow directly in water and on rocks. They need very little in the way of nutrients. Whispermoss is one such example, which grows in Japan.

Shrub
This is a rather woody plant that is smaller than a tree, but very similar. Shrubs consist of several stems rising from the ground. Roses are an example of a shrub.

Tree
Also a woody plant, trees have one stem or trunk that grows to considerable heights and may have branches stemming from its trunk. They are always a perennial.

Water Plant
Any plant that grows while having at least a centimetre of water surrounding it above ground at all times. Gillyweed is one such plant.

Vine
A plant that is woody and climbs or trails along objects, usually possessing thin stems. An example of this is Creeping Ivy -- a plant that not only will slowly creep over rocks, roofs, and fences to cover them, like normal ivy, but can also move itself via a slow crawl to a more habitable location.

HEIGHT
The next characteristic plants are categorized by is height. For a time, there were categories revolving around height, such as under a foot, over fifty feet, etc. However, these categories were eventually abandoned in favor of the more natural urge to list the minimum and/or maximum heights a plant can attain. Usually, just the upper limit is listed, as all plants start off as tiny shoots!

SPECIAL FEATURES
Of course, there are some unique qualities that plants can have that just don’t fall into any category, but are still very important details to consider! These qualities are considered “special features.” Magical qualities can also be listed here, though they are much more benign than the characteristics of plants that fall into the W.H.I.P.S. classes. Additionally, non-magical special features are included here as well. A sampling of important or interesting features are as follows:

Spring flower - plant blooms in the spring season
Summer flower - plant blooms in the summer season
Fall flower - plant blooms in the fall season
Winter flower - plant blooms in the winter season
Reflowering - plant blooms multiple times throughout the year
Constant - plant remains the same all year (like an evergreen)
Low maintenance - plants is easy to take care of
Attraction - plant attracts birds, bugs, animals, etc. (there will usually be a list of the specifics)
Fragrant - plant has a strong smell
Solution - plant solves a common herbological challenge or problem, such as altering the consistency of dirt or helping prevent the erosion of slopes
Drought tolerant - plant can survive periods without water
Cold hardy - plant can tolerate very low temperatures without dying

CLASSIFICATION PROFILE

Common name (Latin name)
Type(s)
Sunlight
Height range(s)
Flower color(s)
Foliage color(s)
Feature(s)

LABELING YOUR STORES OF PLANTS

Latin name (Common name) W.H.I.P.S. Class(es) (Level, if applicable)
Date stored (Year, month, day)
What part of the plant is in the jar
Details on classification