Editorial Principles

Selecting topics and defining value

Plant Note begins with questions readers genuinely ask about plant structures, growth, reproduction, gardening observations, and growing environments. A topic is compared with the site's existing articles and subject coverage so a new article fills a useful gap, deepens an established subject, or adds a distinct observation angle instead of repeating the same answer under another title.

Each article should have a clear central question, a complete plain-language explanation, and a useful comparison, observation clue, or conceptual connection. Search interest may reveal a common question, but it does not replace educational relevance, and article volume alone is not a reason to publish.

Editorial responsibility

Zhu Lee determines each article's direction, intended reader, and scope. This includes comparing source claims, checking whether the plant science and gardening explanations are reasonable, revising wording that could mislead readers, reviewing examples and visual material, and making the final publication decision.

The review also covers titles, descriptions, FAQs, captions, alternative text, internal links, and the relationship between an article and the wider knowledge base. Publication does not place an article beyond correction; material may be revised when stronger evidence, clearer explanations, or better visuals become available.

Sources and checking

The site prioritizes universities, botanical gardens, agricultural extension resources, open textbooks, professional organizations, and credible educational sources. Blogs, forums, and commercial sites may help identify user questions, but they should not be the main basis for plant science claims.

Sources are used only for the points they can reasonably support. When references disagree, evidence is incomplete, or a statement depends heavily on species, growth stage, or growing conditions, the article narrows the claim, states the conditions, or explains the uncertainty instead of presenting a simple answer as a universal fact.

References actually consulted appear in each article's evidence and attribution section. The site's contribution is not merely to restate those sources, but to organize the concepts, clarify common confusion, and connect the evidence to plant observations a general reader can understand.

Writing for general readers

Plant Note is written for students, families, teachers, home gardeners, and curious readers rather than for a specialist audience alone. Articles start with a direct, plain-language explanation and introduce greater detail step by step.

Technical terms are explained when they first become useful. Accuracy is not sacrificed for simplicity, but unnecessary jargon is avoided. Examples, comparisons, and visuals are included when they help readers connect an abstract process with something they can observe in a real plant.

Observation before prescription

Similar leaf, root, or growth changes can arise from different combinations of species, growth stage, light, water, temperature, airflow, humidity, or growing medium. Plant Note therefore emphasizes mechanisms, context, and observable clues rather than turning a single symptom into a guaranteed diagnosis.

The goal is to support better questions and more careful observation, not to present one universal action as the answer for every plant.

Images, captions, and attribution

Every image has a teaching purpose, such as showing a structure, comparing conditions, clarifying a process, or helping readers recognize what the text describes. Some images may be created with generative models, but each is reviewed before a publication decision is made.

External images require a clear source and reuse terms, with creator credit retained when required. Image-source and rights information is recorded so visual material can be traced, corrected, or replaced later. See the Image Policy for details.

Corrections and revisions

Plant Note may revise an article to correct an error, clarify an explanation, improve a visual, update a source, or better distinguish observation from inference. Reader feedback is checked before it is incorporated.

Questions about wording, factual accuracy, image attribution, or missing context can be sent through the Contact page.

Risk boundaries

Plant Note avoids food safety judgments, toxicity judgments, pesticide prescriptions, medical claims, legal advice, policy advice, and promises such as guaranteed recovery or guaranteed flowering.

These boundaries keep the site focused on plant science education and low-risk gardening observation. When a subject cannot be handled responsibly within that scope, it is narrowed, postponed, or left unpublished.

Adding new topics

Topic suggestions are welcome, but they do not automatically become public content. Zhu Lee considers whether a subject fits the site, whether reliable sources are available, whether it can be explained responsibly, and how it connects with the existing knowledge base before adding it to the editorial plan.