Botanical Photographs
Observation, Context and Inference

Three concepts,
one clearer picture.

Three layers of information

A bent outline is visible geometry. The subject’s recorded collection date is contextual information. A statement explaining why the outline is bent is a causal interpretation. All three can be useful, but each has a different evidential basis.

An informative caption does not need to sound uncertain about everything. It can be precise about the visible feature and equally precise about the source of an identification. The difficulty arises when an interpretation is presented as though it were directly photographed.

What a specimen record adds

Kew explains that herbarium labels typically record identification, locality and collection date, among other details. Those records connect a specimen to a documented context that its appearance alone cannot supply. A detached image loses some of that relationship.

For a digital article, keeping the source page with the image helps preserve that context. A filename is not a substitute for the original record: it may have been shortened, translated or renamed during publication. The record should remain distinguishable from an editor’s descriptive title.

A picture is not an experiment

One frame does not establish an earlier condition, a later outcome or the effect of a particular action. Even two frames require evidence that they show comparable material. A before-and-after layout can imply a causal story that the underlying record does not demonstrate.

A hypothetical example makes the distinction clear: two differently angled photographs can make the same object appear more upright in one frame. The visual contrast exists, but the layout alone does not establish a biological change. Context is part of interpretation.

A practical vocabulary for readers

Use visible for details actually shown, recorded for details supplied by the source, and interpreted for the writer’s explanation. These are not formal categories imposed on every sentence; they are a useful way to notice where an account changes from description to inference.

For this library, real photographs retain their attribution and illustrations retain their labels. Where a specimen image is missing, an unrelated picture should not be substituted as evidence. That principle keeps an attractive page from making a claim its visuals cannot support.

Keep exploring.