Of course you can
No moreso than anyone else. Not pages of rules.
You only need as many words blurbs as Ranger tropes you want to create.
You can identify plants, beasts, rocks, and other naturally occuring creatures with a Nature (INT) roll.
That's a rule and it's short.
There No need for technical or real-world knowledge if you contain the rules for creating those tropes in the game.Tropes. Not real world stuff. Being able to track anything, being able to calm beast and listen to trees/the earth, knowing the names and uses of every plant and critter, moving through the wild unimpeded, knowing how to hunt anything, etc.
None of that requires specifics. You don’t need to write down what each herb does, you just give a type of item you can craft from foraging, and make the Ranger better at checks with the skills used to do so.
It's very simple
Either
1) You go freeform and the gamers have to know the games interpretation and gameplay loops for creating those tropes
Or
2) You create specific rules for each trope you want to manifest in the game.
If you want an particularly experienced Ranger to be able to track a Wizard's whereabouts through a portal by identifying the sand or dirt that flew through the portal when he opened it. You have to either:
1) have both the Ranger player or the Dungeon Master identify that this is a manner that you would be able to track the wizard. Then agree that this is allowed for the Ranger.
Or
2) Create a rule that you can roll a Survival (Wisdom) check to track people through portals and teleportation.
Or
How WOTC What do it) Create a Reopen Portal spell.
Nonsense, my friend. The game needs only to tell you how to resolve an attempt to track a creature. Anything else is bonus material.
The game also has to tell you the bounds and limit of that role based on the trope they were trying to emulate.
Because the way D&D works is a player cannot perform a trope unless either The player in DM agree on the trope or the game prescribes the trope in its rules and and the group decides to abide by the rules.