collaboration in plant identification

The benefits of collaboration are immense. It is extremely helpful to see how other people study, how they remember names and characteristics and little tricks they use as compared to my own. Personally I like to use actual pictures of the plants we look at in class to remind me of the discussion and the characteristics pointed out. I used little drawings to decipher the Latin names on flashcards. Although they were mainly personalized to myself and not many people would understand them without my explanation I had a few class mates come up to me after class and say "I remembered your helicopter robot, or your phyllo stacks!" so I believe without the help of my little drawings and without my extra studying of having to explain my drawings maybe we wouldn't have done as well on the test! I have a small group of classmates that get together to study plant ID and botany on a regular basis, this is helpful for all of us because we can call out the answers we know and learn the ones that others know. We sometimes draw or paint pictures and are coming up with more fun and exciting ways to study to encourage ourselves and each other to enjoy studying and not get side-tracked.
When it comes to plant identification versus plant recognition well I just moved to this area so many of the plants outside the garden are brand new to me even if they are recognized by people from bc. Many of the plants I see daily we have identified in class and now that I know them I recognize them all the time! So plant id leads to plant recognition I guess! Learning the basic characteristics, family and name of a new plant helps you to recognize it in day to day situations. For example I see Tansy everyday, when I started school I had no idea what it was, what family it was or anything, and now I see it and its like a reel of information going through my head.

Now what we need is a fungi id class!!! I LOVE MUSHROOMS!

Plant ID Resources

For this assignment I chose the "OSS" section of the campus plant location map. In this location it seems there are quite a few ground cover plants, such as English Ivy and the meidland floral carpet rose. There also appears to be trees such as the crab apple and the dwarf balsam fir.

There are many resources available online, and especially through the school site. The e books seem like a good idea because you can get 2 or 3 and rent them or download them for cheaper than buying and I have a tablet laptop so its easier to transport than a book, never mind 3!
There are also many websites that are useful its easy to compare information between sites and books and see which has a more credible source.
The media section on the kpu library link site was great to look at. There are a lot of documentaries that are free and seeing something in video can help put the issue into perspective. You're more likely to retain information if you can see it and hear it and remember those images.
The kpu plant database is extremely useful, we use it in every class and for many of our assignments. Although there aren't as many plants on it from other regions its very useful for homework and knowing plants in the Fraser valley, west coast area.
The plant ID links provided on the site seem almost endless, there are so many sites you can't possibly look at them all. I probably should have remembered to use them for my last assignment rather than trying to translate Latin directly. :(
Under the specific site endings there are many options:

.bot : There are very useful A-Z lists of plant names on the mobot site and the garden web. They would be very useful because of their wide range of plant names.

.edu : Cal photos from the U of California, Berkley  is a great resource for identifying plants by image. The UBC, Eflora site is similar to the KPU database as it has good pictures and search tools. I also liked the U if Florida Envirohort has information on plant diagnosis and lots of information on trees and shrubs. Lastly under this ending I enjoyed the Urban Forest Eco site. It had a wide selection of trees and the site was simple yet thorough.

.gov : I liked the news.whales site for its glossary of botanical terms.

.gdn : Backyard Gardener was a good site for many plant names you can search the name and it will give you a direct link to Google images. Also Dave's Garden is a great site for plant names, meanings and pronunciations ( unfortunately I looked at all these sites in the first week if classes and firgit TI refer to it for our assignment!!)

.org : The Boreal Forest  is a good resource for other areas of Canada which is interesting to me because I've lived all over to a certain extent. There are comparisons, between plants here and there and has a lot of information about plant all over the earth. The Plant List has up to date names, its very easy to access and has lots of information. There are too many sites in this category to name!!

The Hort1155 plant list is useful to review the specific plants that we have gone over in class. It will be a good study tool when studying for tests for this class specifically and classifying the plants in the families that we have covered.

The plant database app is pretty slow on my phone because I have an old iPhone. And it is not available for my Microsoft surface tablet but I can use the full site easily.  It is a reliable source because it is provided by the school itself.

More to follow with the plant families of this week!

Rosaceae family

This week we learned about the Rosaceae family.

The plants we covered were: Rubus idaeus (Raspberry), Cotoneaster horizontals ( rockspray cotoneaster), Prunus laurocerasus (English laurel), Spiraea japonica 'Goldflame', Malus x domestica (apple), Fragaria x ananassa (garden strawberry), Rosa rugosa (Hansa rose), Prunus 'Kwanzan' (Kwanzan cherry)

The Rubus ideaus has odd-pinnately compound leaves with an alternate arrangement. I would say it has a medium plant texture and pinnately veined and palmately loved leaves. The leaves have a rugose texture, acuminate tip and an oblique attachment. The flower is a 5 petal rotate  and the fruit is aggregate.

The Cotoneaster horizontalis has odd-pinnately compound leaves with and alternate arrangement. The leaf shape is obviate with an obtuse tip, cuneate base and a truncate attachment. The margin is entire and it is s broad leaf evergreen. The Inflorescence is raceme and the flowers are a 5 petal rotate. The fruit is a pome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fragaria x ananassa grows as ground cover and has trifoliate compound leaves that are obvuate shaped and pinnately veined. The flowers are 5 pedal white rotate with many pistols that will turn into the seeds on the multiple fruit.

Rosa rugosa has 5 petal pink flowers with many stamens and pistils and alternating sepals. The flowers can be single or doubles and there are many tightly packed spines on the stems. The leaves are odd pinnately compound leaves have a strong venation. There is an inferior ovary that turns into the rosehip, an aggregate fruit that is very high in vitamin C.


The Spireae japonica 'Goldflame' is a deciduous shrub. The alternately arranged, lanceolate shaped leaves have pinnate venation. The plant is mounded, twiggy, drought resistant and easy to care for.

The  Prunus laurocerasus is a broad leaf evergreen with simple serrately margined leaves. The Inflorescence is s raceme and the 5 white petal rotate flowers turn into a dupe fruit.

Malus x domestica has simple obuvate leaves with an acute tip, an obtuse base and serrulate margin   and 5 petal flowers that turn into the pome fruit.

The Prunus 'Kwanzan' has strongly pinnately veined leaves with an acuminate tip with a pectinate margin. The 45 degree angle branching is done through grafting.

 

PLANT DISCOVERY!!!

Well, this is my first horticulture blog. I am really enjoying learning all the characteristics of plants, their leaves and their flowers. I am a little worried about remembering all the Latin names but I'm sure that will come in time. I felt the same way about the French terms in culinary school and now they seem simple. I look forward to exploring the plant database when I have more time and for projects in class, and also borrowing or buying some books on the subject. I attended a workshop today in Vancouver about edible and medicinal plants in the area. I was happy to learn that many plants considered weeds are extremely beneficial. I am most interested in learning about plants that have a use for humans, such as food, medicine, or materials.
 I have always, for my adult life, been interested in everything that is sustainable, environmental and animal friendly. I thought originally that I would make a difference by going into political science and international development in university when I was 19, that was definitely not for me. Then I ended up working in a kitchen with plans to open a restaurant that was vegan, gluten free and anything else friendly with a garden in the back to supply as much of our own produce as possible. After graduating from culinary school and seeing the limited potential in the industry to ever make enough money to finance such a thing, and helping my parent plant a HUGE garden up in Hay River NWT, I thought I should take the final step in my education and take horticulture. (And suddenly I've managed to ramble on about myself for a whole paragraph).
Back to plants, I walk 40mins along the Nickomekl river trails every day before and after school and find myself picking out plants characteristics, leaf venetian, attachment, trying to figure out what they are, if they flower or produce fruit and if I can eat it!
I herd today about a book called The Boreal Herbal which sounds quite interesting, taking plants from the region from Yukon to BC, and other forested areas in Canada, and explaining their seasonal life and what they can do for you in each season. Here's some we found today:

Echinacea purpurea "Echinacea"

Gaultheria shallon "Salal berry"

Salix bababylon var. pekInensis 'Tortuous'  "Corkscrew Willow"

Rudbeckia hirta, "Black eyed Susan"

 

 

If I were to compare myself to Menzies, or any explorer from long ago, I would have to say I definitely have a love of exploring new places and finding out the differences between where I was before and where I am now. However I probably am not as gutsy as they were. Although I explored Europe alone, years ago, I had trains and hostels and guaranteed food. I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to travel for months to a place where you really have no idea what to expect. That, is truly amazing. I will take into account the ways he identified plants and try to use them to my advantage in this course.

 

All for now!