Notes of an amateur botanist
Having never been "schooled" in botany, I find keying overwhelming when running into an unknown botanical term, or two or three. My degree was in physical chemistry, and my first job was as an industrial chemist at an air separation plant, where one of the things I did was test the CO2 in the air (hydrocarbons in liquid oxygen) every other day, and also learned how oxygen got into the air. Hence, I understand a little of climate change.
iNaturalist is wonderful for catching any incorrect ids I have, but challenges to something I "know" is correct leaves me in a tizzy - at least initially - because I have to prove my case using the dreaded "botanical" terms.
For the first, I went around and around for a couple days, where maps and other opinion did not help, until finally I consulted the normal "end" of a keying exercise, the plant description. I guess one could say it is akin to "nectar robbing", going in the back door.
Anyway, doing this resolved the issue, because Leptosiphon ambiguus was thought to have "humongous" pistils. A quick consultation with Jepson would have indicated that when considering L. ambiguus versus L. parviflora, the latter would more likely have the "humongous" pistils. It was the convincing argument. But it cost me a lot more time than if I had known what I was doing.
L. parviflora
Flower: calyx 4–10 mm, densely hairy, glandular, membrane obscure; corolla salverform, tube 11–46 mm, thread-like, maroon, pink, or yellow, throat yellow, purple, or orange, lobes 4–8 mm,elliptic to oblanceolate, pink, white, yellow, or purple, often with red marks at lobe bases; stamens exserted; stigmas 1–7 mm.
L. ambiguus
Flower: calyx 3–6 mm, generally hairy, membrane generally = calyx; corolla funnel-shaped, tube 3–6 mm, purple, with wide hairy ring inside near throat, throat 3 mm, generally maroon, lobes 4–6 mm, lanceolate, pink, bases yellow, occasionally with white distal to yellow; stamens attached above hairy ring, exserted; stigmas 1–2 mm.
My modus operandi now for resolving differences without keying is
a) Check the recorded locations of both species
b) Check available photos and see if anything jumps out as being different
c) Compare the Jepson descriptions, and see if the "jump out" is described in words, or if there are other differences that can be seen in photos
d) As a last reosrt, consult an expert
Some botanists understand the difficulties that amateurs have, and have created helpful pages, such as below:
http://tchester.org/plants/analysis/gilia/gilias_sd_county.html
But, I should also learn more botanical terms. Next year!
Comentarios
Agregar un comentario