April 2020 Update of the Illinois Botanists Big Year

Welcome back to spring and another year of the Illinois Botanists Big Year!

For those new to the project, the Illinois Botanists Big Year is an annual program of the Illinois Native Plant Society. This is a friendly competition, and more of a personal challenge, to observe as many species of plants as you can in Illinois in a single year. You can learn more about the Illinois Native Plant Society at https://illinoisplants.org/ and find past year's summaries here: https://illinoisplants.org/illinois-botanists-big-year

So far in 2020 we've had...

509 observers
4,407 research grade observations of plants
591 species
321 identifiers

New to observing plants in Illinois on iNaturalist in the past month are @zoe152 @jacobhawkins @daltonk @knatmac @miller4252 @danielraczyk @kvv @mhaughan @nanohappiness @noahcf @trlong @bradbonnett @catievaccaro @emmariealexander @monserratponce @alanady @ksgrossart @ronandoo @srizzo @bobbygonzalez @bwolo @embracingnature @ghapp456 @glitterzilla @jainabemis @jenk87 @jnino77887 @kbelletire @ktlagory @sammyd_ @marniegalloway @seajay1511 @swethamathai @theresabru @treelover2020 @wintert, among many others - almost a hundred new users in all! If you want to stay apprised of Illinois Botanists Big Year updates, you can join the project here. Give them a big welcome and go help them with IDs :)

Most species so far:

@wildlandblogger – 260
@skrentnyjeff – 212
@missgreen – 193
@adriansydor – 175
@johnhboldt – 172
@sedge – 126
@joelmc – 97
@psweet – 95
@taco2000 – 73
@bouteloua – 63

@joelmc was awesome and put together some maps and graphs for the ILBBY. These visualizations were created in R using data downloaded from iNaturalist. You can find his code at this GitHub repo: https://github.com/joelmcf/ilbby2020

Thanks Joel!! He also created some calendar heatmaps for individual species of spring wildflowers, you can read more and view them at his iNat journal: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/joelmc/32001-observation-patterns-for-spring-wildflowers

Also big thanks to everyone who's been helping with the Illinois Flower Phenology Annotation Blitz!

Plant Pic Picks

Don't forget to favorite observations to highlight good photos or cool finds!

Some true winter botanizing with this grey-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) observed by @sedge in Vermilion County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38273046

This crazy double-flowered spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) observed by @outdoorsie in Saline County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40736977

Very weenie wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis) observed by @elfaulkner in Cook County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40142983

Lovely budding and flowering Enemion biternatum observed by @myzmur in Livingston County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41273614

And a bright, cheery bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) observed by @maddiejosmith in Champaign County:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41089609

Help Identify

As always, please help your fellow botanists, when yr able, to identify/confirm their observations.

Try sorting by "new iNaturalist users" or "random" to mix it up!

Even sorting "unknown" observations into broad bins, like "flowering plants" or "insects" is a super useful activity.

Species New to Illinois on iNat

And keep an eye on these links below for any new documentations in 2020.

You'll often find species on here that are the result of computer vision errors, and observations that should be marked captive/cultivated. Fixing these will massively help to sort the wheat from the chaff! Many thanks to all who help with quality control. :)

Non-flowering plants
Monocots excluding Poales
Poales (grasses, sedges, rushes, & friends)
Plants in Asterales (sunflower family and friends)
Plants in Fabales (pea family and friends)
Plants in Lamiales (mint family and friends)
Plants in Rosales (rose family and friends)
Plants in Brassicales (mustard family and friends)
Plants in Ranunculales (buttercup family and friends)
Plants in Caryophyllales (pink family and friends)
Plants in Malpighiales (nance family and friends)
Plants in Boraginales (borage family and friends)
Plants in Fagales (beech family and friends)
All other (eu)dicots except the groups above

happy botanizing!
—@bouteloua (cassi saari)

Publicado el abril 4, 2020 07:43 TARDE por

bouteloua