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

You will be searching around the area for flowering plants.  These could be trees, or shrubs, or herbaceous plants.  The following workflow may be helpful:

1. Start with an app.  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

• 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 (this time of year Asters are not particularly plentiful).  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 given to you by your app 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 and state that you cannot determine the family of your specimen.

Skill(s) to Master for Practicum

1. Learn some of the terminology required to describe flowers

2. Become familiar with how to use the Botany in a Day Flower Key

3. Practice using both apps and keys to identify some common flowers as best you can, make sure you are able to describe your decision making process

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.