As mentioned by another, this is not a good way for students to learn to identify plants. In the past, I have allowed photographs of correctly identified plants to count as part of the collection only in the case where the species was protected or threatened (e.g. orchids).
As a final exam in my plant taxonomy class I grade the collection. Students are expected to have 100 correctly identified plants to get a grade of 100 on the final. Many times plants are found to be incorrectly identified, and the distinction could not have been made from photographs. ---- Original message ---- I have been toying with the idea of allowing students an option to make an "electronic collection" instead of a real one if they so choose. My idea is that the students would take high-quality digital photographs of each plant,....
