Trees, shrubs, grass, what, really?

A few weeks ago, I went for a walk in the woods, but it wasn't just a fun walk.   It was fun but, I was there to do a project.   I take an online class, Intro to Environmental Stewardship, and my assignment was to pick a site and go out and do field work to do an environmental inventory.  Truth be told I had no idea what I was doing, I had no experience with this and no real education/knowledge.   I chose an Environmentally Significant Area (ESA) by my house called Meadowliliy Woods/Nature Preserve in London, ON.

The majority of the assignment was based on tree and plant identification, which was ironic the only tool I had was a mini pocket guide on trees.  Tree identification in the field was harder than I thought.
This is an introductory class, with self directed study, no notes on plants, nothing in our books, if I could suggest anything to an instructor it would be that there be some sort of identification section in the course manuals or textbooks, or some additional online notes, videos, audio lectures.  If this was an actual class there could have been a field trip or leaves brought into the class.   There was no previous experience or class required on plants.  However, I did enjoy learning this process myself, but I feel like if I had prior or proper knowledge and experience that I wouldn't have spent so much time working on my ID.    
I mean I could tell maples and oaks by the leaves but that was about it, but not even the right species.  I  lot of my identification was later by the use of pictures I took and samples of leaves, as well as my own memory, and research of what was in the study area.   This literally took me days to identify trees and plants, at first look I may have thought one species, but looking forward I realized it was something else.  You have to use leaf shape, number of leaves, ridges, veins, arrangement of leaves and so much more . There were so many trees, shrubs, vines, wild weeds, and flowers, I could never have ided them all.    As exhausting as this was, I actually really enjoyed it, when I finally figured out what I thought each plant was.  
An environmental inventory and plant ID are to things I can now add to my toolbelt and for that I am thankful, I can even add this assignment to my portfolio.   Who would have thought a class project could be so useful?  Here are a few pictures of my findings.  For more you can see my facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.989493431279.2477159.120811080&type=3