plant quiz

I found another interesting plant in the yard. Anyone care to take a guess at this one?
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN3888.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN3892.jpg
a special note here, the leaves are alternate, not whorled.

I haven't had a lot of time for botany in a day, but is it in the mallow family?

I'd have to agree. Musk Mallow.

It is definately in the mallow family. The close-up might be a little misleading, the flower is only about half an inch wide. For all the info I can find it is not musk mallow, which has a rather large flower. Maybe this will help.
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/im...Malva+moschata
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/...malvamosc.html

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN3903.jpg

What features do you recognize that place it in the mallow family?

I hope everyone (that is interested in learning plants) is finding this little thread fun and good practice. Recognizing family characteristics will help you with plants no matter where you are in the world.
Right now, plants are my primary focus. I wish I'd have started learning plants when I was 4 or 5 years old, like the NA's.
Last year and this year, I began learning identities and latin names. This year, I'll be taking specimens for scrapbooks, and samples for eating those I've been studying for a year. I'm having trouble remembering all the Latin names, but for now, as long as I know what I'm talking about, and other people can recognize the common names, I'm not too worried. It's when you run into ambiguity that common names will be problematic.

I have one more really interesting flower I found in the new WMA I'd like to share when we get past this one.

At least I'm enjoying this thread. I hope you all are too!

Just goin from memory here YCC, but 5 petals, 5 sepals and many stamen?

Really though, it just had the hybiscus or hollyhock look to me.

Ok, not many takers, but you did recognize the mallow traits. Good eye. For all the comparisons I can find the last plant is Modiola caroliniana
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN3906.jpg

Here's the last one for a while. If anyone else has pictures of common plants that are relatively easy to recognize by some feature(s) feel free to post them to this thread. I hope it to be a thread that newcomers and plant students to reference to get some idea of what they are looking for, and help them to make good observations.
Here's the last one for a while.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4016.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4005.jpg

5 sepals, 5 recurved petals, and a corona of lipped petals around the center. The corona is what you are looking for as the most discinct feature, alongside the long recurved petals. This is a pretty common flower in folks yards used to attract butterflies. Hmmm... maybe I've said too much...

Aslepias tuberosa or butterfly weed

Great thread, keep it going.

Nell got that one quick! Do you have these growing in your yard? The ones we observed at the new fishing hole last weekend had big yellow, and the swirly tail black ones all over them.
Almost looks like a patch of fire in all the greenery. I hope to get some growing in my yard to attract butterflies. Pretty to look at too!

Here's one for the group to ponder. I won't say what's what till you guys have had a couple guesses..

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4215.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4210.jpg
-----
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4442.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN4443.jpg


If you need hints or more info, I'll do my best. You'll see why I chose these two plants once I tell the answer.

Ok.. a hint, since we've had no guesses.
One grows in the garden, one grows in moist soils along creek and pond banks.
One is prefectly edible, while the other will surely kill you.

Notice the striking similarity of the flowers, and the extreme differences in growth habit and structure. There is no steadfast rule to tell if the kin plants are poisonous without research. This is another of those dangerous families where you better double check your ID before you eat any. There is one more curious thing about these plants that I'll save till later (kinda like turkey).

Okay, no takers. This is a particularly interesting set to me because of their striking similarity (flowers) and easy to spot differences.
The top two pictures are of garden peas. Notice the trifoliate leaves. This is the most noticable difference in the two.
The bottom two pics are of crotalaria in it's first year as a spreading prostrate plant. Next year it will get the telltale erect flower stalk. The common name for the plant is "rattlepod" and is considered poisonous, causing cyanide poisoning. Notice the alternate leaf pattern as distinctly different from most pea family plants.
While garden peas are "safe to eat" they still contain chemicals said to be "toxic" but if you break it down to what the toxins actually DO to you, it's not much different than thanksgiving turkey. The toxins cause gas and lethargy... the equivalent of a full belly and wanting a nap... no biggie, unless you ate the crotalaria!!
I really wanted to bring this one to light because we talk about hemlock and nightshade as being the MOST poisonous North American plants, but you should all be aware that there are many, MANY other poisonous plants around too. Simply identifying a plant into a general family that is generally regarded as safe, can make you generally dead. If you are going to identify a plant, often a family classification is not enough. You need to at least identify the genera of the plant because all the plants in that genera will have similar toxic properties. There are actually very few plant families where every genera is safe to eat (like mustard plants).

Be diligent in your research, or you could end up like that guy in Alaska that died alone in a bus, starving, with perfectly good guides to get him along. DO NOT force the identity on a plant and double check the details. Missing one detail could cost you your life!!

questions and comments welcome!

It's hard to resist the temptation when there is an abundance of a plant, etc. that you think is probably edible, but there's always next season... if'n y'all follow YCC's advice that is.

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