may flowers

Remember our 8 major families: Mint - Lamiaceae; Mustard - Brassicaceae; Parsley - Apiaceae; Pea - Fabaceae; Lily - Liliaceae; Grass - Poaceae; Rose - Rosaceae; Aster - Asteraceae.

This lab is all about Linneaus's favorite structures - flowers! At this time of year many plants are showing their flowers. Flower morphology can often be a great way to identify plants, at the very least to family! We now have our "Botany in a Day" approach complete with 8 common families as well as basic knowledge of keys and ability to use digital resources (apps & Google Lens). Let's find some actively flowering plants and figure out what they are (or at least try)!

the lab activity

Search around your area for flowering plants. These could be trees, or shrubs, or herbaceous plants. I encourage you folks to use the following workflow:

1. Start with an app. This can be used in the field in real-time or at a desktop once you get home. If you are waiting until you get home I would encourage you pick a sample flower from the plant if practical. Try to build on the knowledge you earned with the previous lab. These apps are handy but not perfect by any means. They do tend to be better when dealing with flowers. I would wager they will certainly NOT get you the correct species much of the time but should land you in the correct genus - at least hopefully in the correct family! There are cases where the apps will only give you incorrect options. Hopefully this is minimized when using flowers but watch out for this being a possibility. Remember from last lab some of the best apps out there right now are:

• Picture This

• PlantNet

• iNaturalist

• Google Lens using Google reverse image search

2. Once you have a family from your app compare that to the information in the Botany in a Day Flower Key. Make sure you also read about how to use this key and take note that the Asters are not included in this key because of the huge size of this family. If you think you have an Aster go to the Aster family section of your first lab. You will need to compare the details you see in the flower of your specimen to the flower characteristics for the family you think it belongs to. You will need to make a case that your specimen is in the family you think it is. Make sure you get familiar with using the terminology in the Botany in a Day Flower Key - it is pretty basic and is a good introduction to some of the jargon present in the field of Botany. If you come to the conclusion that the family is incorrect...see if you can correctly key your specimen out to family. If you hit a wall here it is fine to describe your process in the lab and state that you cannot determine the family of your specimen.

3. Reflect on your posture toward plants and the world they help create. Here are some resources to help you consider this question and what it means:

• Earth Day 2020: Ten Plants to Guide us from reflection to action

• Jennifer's Intro to how she thinks of plants

• Jennifer's approach to her backyard spring ephemeral garden

• 'Not just weeds': how rebel botanists are using graffiti to name forgotten flora

• Green therapy: how gardening is helping to fight depression

what to hand in on your website

• 10 pictures of flowers you have found around you with your best attempt at identification. Identification should at least be down to family. Feel free to get more specific if you are sure [10 points]

• 10 lengthy descriptions (one to go along with each picture) connecting the family-level details found in the Botany in a Day Flower Key and other details found in 8 Major Plant Families if appropriate with the details you can actually observe in your specimen. It pays for you to be as descriptive as you can. [40 points]

• A one solid paragraph reflection of what your posture is towards plants....i.e. how you think of them and how you approach them. Feel free to include details from the recommended resources above. [10 points]

background

Below are pictures of flowers we have taken around our house these last couple of weeks.

multi-access key to wildflowers - https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Wildflowers

other resources....

Earth Day 2020: Ten Plants to Guide us from reflection to action

• http://willowmennonite.org/earth-day

A few sites on spring ephemerals:

• In Defense of Plants: the Badass Spring Ephemerals

• Native Spring Ephemerals, Brooklyn Botanic Garden

A few sites on gardening with native plants:

• Audubon, Why Native Plants Matter

• Doug Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home

• Indiana Native Plant Society (INPAWS)

• Most states have some sort of native plant organization. This is a great place to learn what species are most beneficial to the ecosystems where you live. Often, they also sponsor fun hikes.