Catching a Wobbly

Today Jonty's homework involved selecting 2 plants in the garden and then comparing them in terms of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit, using his magnifying glass to examine them closely. He had to write brief descriptions under each heading.

Easy? Well, ye-es, but ... it's all in Thai.

When he opened up his book to show me the chart he had to fill out I caught a wobbly. The thing is that I know NOTHING about botanical terminology in Thai. I know the basic words like "fruit", "roots", "flower", etc, and know enough to read the instructions, which is why I could actually work out what he needed to do, but how to describe all these things using the right terminology...?

How was I going to help my son with his homework?

I mean what IS a "hardy perennial" in Thai? What is a "compound" leaf, a "simple" one? How do they describe an "ovate" leaf? Glossy? Waxy? And types of bark: ring bark, corky, smooth bark, peeling bark? Do they even have all these words?

I don't know if I can do this. I can help him in English, but can I help him in Thai? I felt ever so slightly incompetent and inadequate. But while I was having a quiet little panic attack, and googling translations of "angiosperms", Jonty was calmly completing his homework:

Plant 1 (he'd chose a jasmine bush):
ROOTS: small
FLOWER: small, white
FRUIT: none
LEAVES: small, green
STEM: not strong

Plant 2 (coconut tree - magnifying glass of great benefit when looking for coconut trees, please note!)
ROOTS: long
FLOWER: long
FRUIT: coconut
LEAVES: big
STEM: strong, straight, long

CONCLUSION: Plants are not all the same.

(All of this written in perfect Thai of course)

Okay then. I can handle Grade 1, even if it is all in Thai because my Thai is at least this level - I actually knew all those words! And I'll just have to learn along with him. Or he can teach me.

P.S. Google Translate rendered พืชชั้นสูง for Angiosperms.