My First Flower of 2010

After over a month of freezing temperatures, snow, ice and drab depressing skiery, a glimmer of spring has graced the stage of the new year. Don't get too excited, it's only Veronica polita.

With frostbitten leaves, the tiny blue blooms of this spring harbinger made quick work of a sunny day last weekend in Springfield, Missouri.

I'm sure others have seen it already this year, but it is easily overloooked so I decided to post it. In other news, I heard a solitary Spring Peeper yesterday and Timberdoodles have been working my field for over a week. Man are my feet getting itchy.

As some of us know, the "Get Your Botany On" blog was born from an annual competition centered around the discovery of the first flowering species from each family. The fire of that game has since fizzled but the spirit of that game should live on. I propose that we post updates of what is flowering in our respective areas this spring. No photos necessary, just quick informal notes for those interested in the floral progression across the geographical range of our contributors.

ChloroFilms

Vic Riemenschneider recently sent me an email with a link to ChloroFilms. Check it out...

http://www.chlorofilms.org/index.php

This link contains a collection of plant videos stored on YouTube. From their webpage, their objective is "to promote the creation of fresh, attention-getting and informative video content about plant life and to make the best of these videos easy to find from a single website."

Be sure to watch some of the carnivorous plant videos. Astonishing plants doing astonishing things.

Numerous Plant Quizzes - Annotated Photo

I recently posted the following photograph from Round Lake in Starke County, Indiana as a plant quiz and asked for identification of as many species as possible.


I've labeled the plants that I was able to ID from the photo and my memory of the site. You'll probably need to click on the photo to expand it to see the answers and the plants they are denoting. The key to the answers is below...

A – Solidago graminifolia v. nuttallii (Euthamia graminifolia)
B – Scirpus pungens (Schoenoplectus pungens)
C – Pycnanthemum virginianum
D – Eupatorium maculatum (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)
E – Potentilla fruticosa (Dasiphora fruticosa)
F – Lysimachia quadriflora
G – Dryopteris thelypteris v. pubescens (Thelypteris palustris v. pubescens)
H – Rosa palustris?
I – Juncus dudleyi
J – Calamagrostis canadensis?
K – Eupatorium perfoliatum
L – Aster novae-angliae
M – Solidago riddellii (Oligoneuron riddellii)
N – Carex sterilis
O – Typha sp.

I don't see Onoclea sensibilis, Carex brunnescens (maybe this was guessed for Carex sterilis?), or Rudbeckia hirta (maybe this was guessed for the yellow composite in the background, which I think may be a Helianthus?), which were all suggested.

Pretty sharp group we have here! There were very few plants that I was able to identify from the photo and my memory of the site that were not identified by the group. Thanks for all of your comments.

Castilleja Diversity

I recently added a new post on Through Handlens and Binoculars about several species of Castilleja that we encountered on our trip to Colorado last July.


Click here to check it out!