CS450, Have you talked to your local USDA Cooperative Extension office? Our agent showed me the books he uses to identify lawn weeds and it is quite specific to my area. Anyone nearby that studies or even dabbles in botany should be able to suggest more specific books.
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Originally Posted by your_comforting_company
well i dont know about the USDA, but im planning to go to the local nature center and study up there. maybe talk to a naturalist too.
I only have a week though. cuz this coming monday im flying out to my dads house in OHio where ill have a million new plants to ID.
haha
i cant wait to fish though!
Look up daves canterburies videos. He is from ohio. He has some good ones on edibles as well.
http://www.youtube.com/user/wildernessoutfitters
bookmarked.
ever since i started studying up on plants i have like a thousand bookmarks now
O_o
Edit: oh damn i didnt even realize, thats the guy from dual survivor
Confirmation please.
I just wanted to confirm here and make sure im on the right track:
Location: about 100 feet from a lake, in northeast ohio
Underneath mature maple, beech and white oak
I believe its Partidgeberry (Mitchella repens)
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the berries were red, and fusing together. some were more fused, some less
leaves were opposite (paired?) , not sure which term is correct
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this pic might be hard to see, but basically its a small shrub about shoulder hieght
this is what made me question my judgement. My book said its a ground cover plant...?
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A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek Proverb
that is exactly what i was gonna call it
All good things are wild and free
-Henry David Thoreau
Learn from the old and the wise
the original questioned plant turned out to be poison hemlock...
I now use this thread to address any plant in question that i come upon.
which might be a bad thing, cuz i think people just read the first page and skip the whole thread
anyhow., Im trying to ID the above plant
which i think is partridge berry
if anyone can confirm or deny that, please chime in
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek Proverb
Partridge berry is a prostrate viney thing that creeps along the ground and the leaves usually have a nearly white veining feature. That red-berried thing looks more like a honeysuckle. But I'm on the east coast and only trained thoroughly in wetland plants (for my original career a long time ago).
I don't like the Peterson Guides only because they rely mainly on color and I was brought up through school with dichotomous keys. And my botany professor was colorblind so he HATED them.
Here's a beginner's key that should work in Ohio, despite it's name:
Plants in the Vicinity of New York
It's out of print but you can usually find a copy or two around. There are a few small errors in it that our botany professor pointed out. If you decide to check it out, I can post what those are.
There are no pictures in this book.
Another good set is the Dover series: Plants of the Northern United States and Canada.
This is a 3 book series that should be good in Ohio as well. It is a little more complicated but still a dichotomous key. This book has line drawings and I use it to confirm identities after keying with non-picture books. Of course, you could just go to google images today but be careful of common names.
Both books are outdated. Botanists regularly define their reason for being by reclassifying plants into different Genera. Or renaming the Genera to suit some crazed reasoning. But they are a start.
Dichotomous keys also usually require a flower. That's why I can't tell for certain if your red berry is a honeysuckle or not. But it sure looks like one.
Last edited by LowKey; 07-09-2010 at 10:37 PM.
i thought honeysuckle had blue/black berries?
As far as books go, i need to get botany in a day. Everyone seems to say thats the book to read. I havent seen it at any bookstores yet. might have to buy kit online
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek Proverb
I don't know the book Botony in a Day but mistrust the title...
Honeysuckle here has red berries, some of them stuck together as you describe. I'm not saying I'm right, just that Partridge Berry is wrong.
Also in CA you get a lot of plant escapees. It could be an exotic that looks like a honeysuckle.
I just checked the book you mentioned on Amazon... Check the one 3 star review.
It is definitely helpful to learn the various characteristics of plant families, square stems for mints for example, or what makes a flower a Compositae, but don't rely on similar characteristics for similar uses. As you learned with your first plant.
Your red berried thing:
http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?sea...icera+morrowii
or
http://www.invasive.org/species/subject.cfm?sub=3040
Hard to tell without seeing the flower or knowing if the berries are on stems. More likely the second one. Was it growing in deep shade? That would explain the small number of berries. I didn't look up whether or not you could eat it.
I'm a little concerned about your reliance on a single source book and your determination to eat things. That purple flower for instance, just because you couldn't find any other purple flower in your book other than Iris, doesn't mean it is the plant you think it is. It looks more like some form of Lily and not at all like this CA plant called Brodiaea.
http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-...iaea-pulchella
And the Stinging Nettle, you can eat that. But you have to harvest it young (wear gloves) and boil it to deactivate the stinging hairs before you do.
I'm not sure whereabouts in CA you are, but there are tons of exotic tropical escapees that will not be in a native flora book. You might want to see if you can find a local plantsman who could help you out. Or an agricultural extension service as YCC mentioned. Or others that wild forage in your area who know what is safe.
Last edited by LowKey; 07-11-2010 at 08:03 PM.
I managed to figure out that the bush was Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle). and its not edible.
Yes i know im still in the learning stage. thats why i havent eaten anything yet, and why im always double checking with the internet forums. Im going to college soon, and majoring in Biology, so ill be taking a botany class among others, so that should help me.
I live in Castro Valley, which is near oakland, CA
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek Proverb
I was gonna take plant science this fall, but it wasn't offered.
What'll really help you more is a Plant Taxonomy class. If that isn't an option, speak to the prof who teaches Wildlife Biology (or some variant of that) and see if you can get them to offer it. Don't let them use the Peterson Guide.
You might have to wangle up a minimum number of students but it isn't impossible.
Biology is too general. Specialize. I had a Botany major with a Wildlife Sciences minor, the first time around... After 8 years in a plant lab, I do something completely different now, but haven't lost touch with the native flora of my area.
Another good place to learn is a local Native Botanical Garden. They'll have labels near the plants so you can see what they are. Visit at various times of year to see the plants in all phases of their growth. If permissible, take pictures (sometimes you need to take a quickie class on the rules for photographing plants in the garden. Rule #1: Don't step off the trail.) Some Native Gardens will also include non-invasive exotics and will generally have a pictorial display picturing the invasive ones. It's also a great place to meet home-growers and foragers (No, they don't eat in the garden). Sometimes they even offer classes on wild edibles.
Looks like you have a big garden with a large Native collection at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkely
Last edited by LowKey; 07-12-2010 at 08:43 PM.
They have a tree and shrub taxonomy class at my local junior college, but it doesent fit in with my schedule :/
Trees and shrubs are actually pretty easy. There's really not all that many different ones and most don't require flowers to come up with a positive ID (though they help immeasurably). Trees especially.
It's all the herbaceous stuff that's tough.
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