Back to School
Back-to-school season is officially here. As students return to the classroom, it’s also time for us to prepare! For the remainder of August throughLabor Day Weekend, we’ll host a variety of identification challenges to help us get observations to RG!
First, I want to take a minute to thank everyone for all your contribution and support! So far this year, our Fire Followers project has added over 57,000 observations, which is approximately 10,000 observations more than the previous year. With the amount of observations we have been receiving, we currently have ~31,000 observations in the Needs ID category and we need your help again to help reach RG for some of these observations.
Before we get to the identification challenges, let's review some of the materials to help us get started!
AI: Andrea vs Identotron - Getting the most out of computer-aided plant ID
Check out this webinar by Andrea Williams, a botanist who can help you get the most out of iNaturalist’s suggestions! A lot of us simply accept without question the computer-aided suggestions in iNaturalist, but check again! Is the plant suggested even found in that region? Does it match the description in a flora? Check out the recorded webinar for the tips and tricks to get the best ID suggestion to your ability.
The Real Spring [Plant Identification] Training
In case you missed our Spring Training early this Spring, check out the recordings here. Watch as our “coaching staff” for plant identification demonstrate how to sharpen your skills. @boschniakia
@rupertclayton
Hey, Hey we’re the Monkees! We’re too busy evolving to put anybody down
Additionally, From Friends of the Chico State Herbarium, be sure not to miss out on this recording by Steve Schoening on Monkeyflowers!
https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/html5/html5lib/v2.85/mwEmbedFrame.php/p/670832/uiconf_id/29182902/entry_id/1_0fx6lrq4?wid=1_kghtigge
Seep Monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata)
© Evan Lipton, CC-BY-NC)
Challenge Details
Now for our identification challenge! We will host 10 different challenges over the span of 2 weeks. From now until Sep 6, 2022, we will have the opportunity to focus on the 10 plant families listed below. The top identifier of each of the 10 families will be added to a prize drawing for a Fire Followers t-shirt! A single participant can win multiple categories and increase their chances of winning!
Asteraceae
Fabaceae
Boraginaceae
Poaceae
Polemoniaceae
Phrymaceae
Plantaginaceae
Lamiaceae
Montiaceae
Rosaceae
Click on each link for a more in-depth description of each plant family from The Jepson Herbarium: University of California, Berkeley. For more information, feel free to check out the website here: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/jeps/
1) Asteraceae | Needs ID ~4,000
Description:
Little surprise this family has the most identifications needed; it’s one of the largest plant families in California and the world! Recognizable for its composite inflorescence, the family breaks into subfamilies and further into tribes:
The Chicory Subfamily
These are what we tend to think of as dandelions; they have strap-shaped flowers (“petals”), often yellow, white, or bluish/purple, and milky sap.
The Aster Subfamily
Plants you think of as daisies, sunflowers, cudweeds, goldenrods, tarplants, and yarrows; they usually have showy ray flowers and tubular disk flowers.
The Thistle Subfamily
Plants we call thistles are usually spiny in some way; flowers are often red to purple but can be yellow in non-native star-thistles.
The Other Ones
A few species don’t fit into these categories, but they aren’t too common.
Left: Common Woolly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum) © Damon Tighe(@damontighe), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74697559
Right:Cobwebby (Thistle Cirsium occidentale) © Jeff Bisbee(@jeffbisbee), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122160396
2) Fabaceae | Needs ID ~2,500
Description:
Often referred to as the pea family, this large and varied family can be subdivided into broad groups as well–but united by their fruits–legumes!
The Pea Subfamily
Most legumes are in this subfamily, what we usually think of as “typical” peas. Sweet peas and vetches have pinnately compound leaves ending in a bristle or tendril. Lupines, clovers, milkvetches, lotus, and indigo bush are each in their own tribe. Lupines and clovers have palmately compound leaves; others, pinnately compound.
The Mimosa Subfamily
Acacia, mesquite, mimosa: these woody plants have pom-pom flowers and pinnately compound leaves.
The Peacock Flower and Redbud Subfamily
Often thorny shrubs or trees, the former are usually desert plants such as senna and palo verde with “typical” pinnate leaves and radial yellow flowers while redbud have more “typical” pea family flowers but simple leaves.
Left: Miniature Lupine (Lupinus bicolor) © Aaron Echols(@aaron_echols), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74343278
Right: Pacific Pea (Lathyrus vestitus) © rosaleen(@rosaleen), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/118405012
3) Boraginaceae | Needs ID ~2,200
Description:
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146 to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. In California, these are usually herbs divisible into two groups which used to be separate families.
The “True” Borages
These plants usually have reproductive parts hidden within the flowers, which can be white, or yellow in fiddlenecks and blue in houndstongue and forget-me-nots. Fruits are nutlets, which are often needed to identify species.
The Former Hydrophylls
These plants used to comprise the waterleaf family, but fancy “scorpioid cyme” inflorescences put them with “traditional” borages. Phacelias, baby blue eyes and other nemophilas are typical of the group; flowers are usually white to blue or purple. Fruits are capsules.
Left: Mountain Phacelia (Phacelia imbricata) © Madeleine Claire(@madily), (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98262037
Right: Rancher's (Fiddleneck Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia) © BJ Stacey(@finatic), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/78747888
4) Poaceae | Needs ID ~1,000
Description:
They’re grasses! Like most large families, these are also divided into subfamilies based on the architecture of the inflorescence and arrangement of spikelets.
The “Typical” Grasses
Bluegrasses, bromes, fescues and melics usually have panicled inflorescences with multiple florets (flowers) in each spikelet.
The Panicgrasses
Panicgrass, bluestem, and dallis grass often have tufting hairs as a hallmark of their varied inflorescences and stems.
The Lovegrasses
Another varied subfamily with members such as bermuda grass, grama, and muhly
The Other Grasses
Bamboo, giant reed, rice, threeawn, and pampas grasses each comprise their own subfamilies
Left: Purple Needlegrass (Nassella pulchra) © Arvel Hernandez(@arvel), (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108566059
Right: Torrey's Melicgrass (Melica torreyana) © Jennifer Rycenga(@gyrrlfalcon), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/111731928
5) Polemoniaceae | Needs ID ~1,000
Description:
Mostly annual or perennial herbs, this family is recognizable for having floral parts fused–the calyx lobes often with membranes connecting them, and corollas with long tubes. Some members of this family have bracted heads or glandular hairs; these and flower color, number, and arrangement–along with stamen placement–are important in identification.
Left: Bluehead Gilia (Gilia capitata) © Will Freyman(@willfreyman), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/80250792
Right: Splendid Woodland-Gilia (Saltugilia splendens) ©William Mason(@ectothermist), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98518393
6) Phrymaceae | Needs ID ~750
Description
In our hearts they’re all still monkeyflowers! Also known as the lopseed family, this small family of flowering plants has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, but is concentrated in two centers of diversity, one in Australia, the other in western North America.
Annuals to shrubs, most flowers are noticeably two-lipped and flower shape, size and color as well as calyx lobing are important in identification.
Left: Seep Monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata) © Don Loarie(@dloarie), (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/76412573
Right: Southern Bush Monkeyflower (Diplacus longiflorus) © velodrome (@velodrome), (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/115997206
7) Plantaginaceae | Needs ID ~700
Description:
Maybe you don’t remember when Scrophulariaceae got blown up and a big chunk placed in with the formerly inconspicuously flowered plantain family, but this is now a large, diverse family of flowering plants that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and penstemon.
A lot of these are fire followers, with recognizably 2-lipped flowers on herbs or shrubs with simple leaves.
Left: Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla) © Stacie Wolny(@newtpatrol), (CC-BY-NC-SA) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/79071480
Right: Right: Rydberg Penstemon (Penstemon rydbergii) © My-Lan Le (@mylan), (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/70650194
8) Lamiaceae | Needs ID ~800
Description:
Most of us know the mint family, with square stems and strong scents and usually two-lipped flowers in heads or whorled or paired along stems–those arrangements can be important in identification.
Left: Coyote Mint (Monardella villosa) © Eric Koberle(@ekoberle), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86004078
Right: California Hedge (Nettle Stachys bullata) © edward_rooks(@edwardrooks), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130514428
9) Montiaceae | Needs ID ~750
Description:
Springbeauties, pussypaws and other members of this family usually have rosettes of fleshy leaves and the arrangements of flowers and bracts, as well as the shape of leaves, are important for identification.
Left: Streambank Springbeauty (Claytonia parviflora) © Tony Iwane (@tiwane), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69905520
Right: Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) © Lauren Glevanik(@lglevanik), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108566874
10) Rosaceae | Needs ID ~700
Description:
While rose family plants range from herbs to trees, their flowers tend to share a similar structure: 5 petals attached to a hypanthium (extension of the ovary), and numerous stamens. This family often has delicious fruits (peaches, apples, blackberries and strawberries to name a few) but fruits can also be dry as in bitterbrush and mountain mahogany.
Left: California Wild Rose (Rosa californica) © Kaija Gahm(@kaijabean), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/121528431
Right: Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) © Charlie Russell(@charlescrussell), (CC-BY-NC) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88887804
You’re tagged in this post because you are among some of the top identifiers this month. We hope you take part in helping identify some of the observations made so far!
@grnleaf @graysquirrel @kwillott @oceanfleskes @sgene @alex_wentworth @alan_rockefeller @morganstickrod @plantsoncolors @mikhael @choess @akk2 @lehacarpenter @catchang @adamschneider @rosacalifornica @domingozungri @poa @tchester @stomlins701 @sandor_in @devilsacmispon @plantperson7654 @aguilita @danieldas @gheaton @lilyboy
