How Pick & Pair works
Every card lies face down. Two kinds are in the pile, and the backs tell you which:
a find is a plant, fruit or fungus, and a ground is a habitat.
Turn over two. There are two ways to make a pair.
A find and its ground.
Blackberry with hedgerow. The strong pair, because knowing where something grows is
how anyone finds it. Worth 25.
Two finds that share a season.
Their months must overlap by three or more. Worth 15.
Anything else turns back over.
Two grounds never pair. You are told what was missing, which is where most of the
learning happens.
Each pair in a row multiplies your score up to five times, and a
miss resets the run. Fresh cards fill the gaps until the pile runs out.
If nothing left on the table can pair, the ground shifts and a new habitat comes up,
so a round never dead-ends.
The colours judge your pairing. They never say whether something is safe to eat.
That is written in words on every card.