Plantordle Game
One of twelve plant families is hidden, and every game hides a new one. You find it by guessing families: each guess adds a row of five traits, the petals, the flower's symmetry, how the leaves sit on the stem, where the ovary is and the kind of fruit, and every trait turns green where it matches the hidden family. Botanists know a family by a bundle of traits like these, so the board fills in as the very table you would copy out to learn them.
One plant family is hidden, a new one every game. Guess families and read their traits to find it in six tries.
How to play
- Type a family, such as Rose or Rosaceae, or tap one of the twelve flowers under the board. Press Tab to take the name the box suggests.
- Press Enter or GUESS. The family's row shows its petals, symmetry, leaves, ovary and fruit.
- A green tile matches the hidden family and a grey tile does not. A grey petals tile has an arrow: up if the hidden family has more petals, down if it has fewer. Many is more than five.
- Varies means the trait differs within that family. It matches only a family whose trait also varies.
- Find the family within six guesses. Then share your grid of colours, which shows neither the family nor your guesses, or press PLAY AGAIN for a new family.
LEARNER greys out the flowers of the families the board has already ruled out. On a keyboard, type the name, press Tab to take the suggestion and Enter to guess. Escape or Space pauses.
Scoring
A family found on the first guess scores 600 points, on the second 500, and so on down to 100 on the sixth. A family not found scores nothing.
Play as many games as you like, and each one hides a new family. Your five best scores are saved in this browser only.
The twelve families
The families are named as botanists name them today, in the APG IV system: Lily (Liliaceae), Orchid (Orchidaceae), Iris (Iridaceae), Mustard (Brassicaceae), Rose (Rosaceae), Pea (Fabaceae), Mallow (Malvaceae), Pink (Caryophyllaceae), Carrot (Apiaceae), Mint (Lamiaceae), Aster (Asteraceae) and Geranium (Geraniaceae).
Lilies, orchids and irises have their flower parts in threes, so their petals count as three. An aster's head of many small florets counts as Many. A trait that only a few members of a family break, such as the unequal petals of candytuft in the Mustard family, keeps the family's usual value. Where a family is truly mixed, as the Rose family's fruits are, from rose hips to strawberries and apples, the tile says Varies.
Notes on learning the families are on our plant families page. Or try our other free memory games.
