Biodiversity survey on 1/4 acre

[WDH]

#1 is hazel alder, Alnus serrulata.  It is in the birch family. 

#3 is wild ginger, Asarum canadensis.  Crush the leaf.  It has a wonderfully distinctive smell.

#4 looks like a young seedling Cercis candensis, Eastern redbud.

#5 is Soloman's seal, Polygonatum commutatum, in the lily family.

The others don't ring a bell right off .  #7 is one that I have never seen before.  It is important to know what you don't know ;D.

#6 and #2,  I am not sure of.  Hmmmmmmmm.

[Ron Wenrich]

This thread reminds me of one of the curses of being a forester.  Every plant you come across, you have to identify.  But, being a forester, we have to take that one step further.  How did it get here, and why is it growing here?   :D

[Lanier_Lurker]

So, #1 is hazel alder.  I think I have heard of it, but I am certainly not familiar with it.

My observation that my specimen would almost be flooded if the lake were full is interesting when you look at the pictures here: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=8

[Lanier_Lurker]

Ok, I guess I have enough energy for one more.

This is one of the ones I suspect I know - but here it goes anyway:


Unknown plant #8

[Lanier_Lurker]

Sorry, that is not how it looked on the preview.

I tripled checked it to make sure it rendered correctly on the preview.

Sorry... :(

It should be good enough....

[SwampDonkey]

Specimens 6 and 7 are very likely the same species, at least the same genus Prenanthes. We have one called rattle-snake root Prenanthes racemosa, then others I know of are Prenanthes alba and Prenanthes crepidinea . They are in the aster family. The leaves are variable like what you show and there is one more leaf in between that one.  :D :D :D

The flowers are like those on the plant Dodgy Loner had on here to ID a while back.

These grow real tall and I always find them here in alder growth where the soil is quite saturated. You probably found them around those alders eh? ;)

[SwampDonkey]

# 2 is rattlesnake-weed Hieracium venosum. Flowers are dandelion-like.

#5 looks like rose twisted stalk Streptopus roseus, possibly not roseus but the same genus. Flower petals are rose colored or white with purple streaks.

[WDH]

LL,

You taunting hid whether it was opposite branched or not ;D.  I from what I see so far, it looks like Chionanthus virgininia, fringe tree (old man's beard).

[Lanier_Lurker]

WDH, I assume you are talking about #8.

If you can temporarily change your screen resolution to something larger than 1280x1024 then the 6 images should render as a 3x2 grid composite image in the browser.  (now I know to do them a little smaller next time)

Fringe tree is something I am not familiar with.  I will research it.

[Lanier_Lurker]

SD, thanks for identifying those.  Now I have some stuff to research! 

[SwampDonkey]

Another twisted stalk in the mountains south of here is White Mandarin S. amplexifolius, with green-white flowers and clasping leaves to the stem. The tell-tailed twist to the stalk rules out Solomon's seal. We also have a false Solomon's with a flower spike on top like goat's beard or false Indian hellibore.

[SwampDonkey]

With those rattlesnake roots, some call them white lettuce.

[Riles]

Now, the whole point of scientific names is to reduce the confusion associated with common names that change from place to place. Pin oak being a wonderful example. And I can understand how a scientific name might change over time as the genetics are better understood and a species might be moved to another genus, but such changes should be rare and occur infrequently.

I learned hazel alder as Alnus rugosa, the Virginia Tech dendro site has it as Alnus incana ssp. rugosa, and WDH has it as Alnus serrulata. The big daddy in charge in the states is supposed to be, I thought, the American Botanical Congress, who coordinate with the International Botanical Congress, who have guidelines established for taxonomy. Which brings me back to my question: How do I look up the official (current) scientific name of hazel alder? There doesn't seem to be any online resources and I can't imagine where to find the written texts?

Any suggestions, Prof Loner?

[SwampDonkey]

A. rugosa is speckled alder and the leaves are wrinkled as the latin species name suggests. The leaves pictured are a different alder. Speckled  is a northern shrub in NE and Lakes States and to the northern tree line, not down in Georgia.

We do see some hazel alder up as far as NE US and SW N.B. and N.S., leaves gummy and aromatic when young. Only native alder in SE US.

[WDH]

How do I look up the official (current) scientific name of hazel alder? There doesn't seem to be any online resources and I can't imagine where to find the written texts?

Any suggestions, Prof Loner?

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=8

[Lanier_Lurker]

Next batch.

Dodgy, sorry for taking over your thread.  :



Unknown plant #9










Unknown plant #10
If it helps any, this is a vine.









Unknown plant #11

This thing is growing in the rich silt of the exposed lake bed that would normally be 8 feet under water.

[SwampDonkey]

#9 poison ivy

#10 wild potato Ipomoea pondurata or wild yam Dioscorea villosa  ?

#11 Rumex sp?

[WDH]

I agree with SD on #9.  #11 might be pigweed.

Is #10 a vine?

[Sprucegum]

I don't know nothin' about nothing nowhere near where-ever but I sure do admire your photography  8)  8)

[Bro. Noble]

10 looks kinda like Muscadine (sp)  If it is,  you are a lucky fellow.

11 is Pennsylvania Smartweed if I'm not mistaken.  If it is,  keep in mind that it is a poor (really, really poor) substitute for toilet tissue.

[Tom]

10 looks like "Air Potato[/url" to me.  If it is, get rid of it post haste.

[Dodgy Loner]

Most of these have already been answered correctly, but here are the answers I know for sure.  As you know I'm not much on herbaceous plants, so I'll leave SD and WDH to debate those

1.   Hazel alder (Alnus serrulata )
2.   
3.   Heartleaf (Hexastylis virginica) – this plant is sometimes called wild ginger due to its strong, spicy odor, but the term "wild     
             ginger" more commonly refers to Asarum canadense, which has leaves occurring in pairs and more rounded, rather than
             triangular, leaves
4.   Wild yam/air potato (Dioscorea villosa) – the parallel venation gives this one away
5.   Solomon's seal (Polygonatum commutatum)
6.   
7.   
8.   Fringetree (Chionanthus virginius)
9.   Poison-ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
10.   Wild yam/air potato

Riles, there is and has always been some amount of disagreement about certain scientific names.  They're definitely more reliable than common names, and there are certain systems to try to peg down classifications based on phylogenetic relationships (check out the Cronquist system and the Dahlgren system on Wikipedia).  However, determining what name to assign to each species is made more difficult by the fact that there is still a considerable amount of debate about whether to classify some taxa as separate species or not.  It is an inexact science, to say the least.  We are trying to make the natural world conform to unnatural standards, which is inherently troublesome.

Here are some recent changes to some of the taxa that you are probably familiar with:

-The Taxodiaceae (baldcypress, redwoods, sequoias) has been abandoned and all species are currently placed in the Cupressaceae
-The Aceraceae (maples) and Hippocastanaceae (buckeyes/horsechestnuts) now reside in the Sapotaceae (the soapberry family)
-The Tiliaceae (basswood/linden) and the Bombaceae (no native species, but this family did include familiar exotics such as baobabs) are now place in the Malvaceae (the family of the familiar hibiscus, okra, and cotton)
-The Caesalpiniaceae (honeylocust, redbud), the Fabaceae (black locust, yellowwood) and the Mimosaceae (mimosa) have been combined to form the Fabaceae, which encompasses all legumes.  This family has come full circle, starting out as the Leguminosae, then changing to the Fabaceae to conform to standardized naming for plant families (they all have to end in –aceae), then being split into three separate families, and now recombined to form one family again.

Isn't taxonomy fun? 8)

[SwampDonkey]

I agree with SD on #9.  #11 might be pigweed.

Is #10 a vine?

We have a couple plants called pigweed and both have flowers in axils of leaves. One has rounded leaves and the other is oval at the base coming to a point on the tip with small sinuses on the leaf margins. Young plants are steamed and eaten.

Rumex species are similar with the flowers and one is called yellow curly dock because of the leaf curl on the leaf margins and it has reddish figures in the leaves like that plant pictured, maybe not the same pattern. They are in the buckwheat family.

[Riles]

Thanks guys, looks like I'm entitled to a small refund on my dendrology tuition. I did in fact bookmark the speckled alder page, guess I was thinking it was the common name that was varying.

My original search continues. The American Botanical Congress doesn't even have a website I can find, much less an authoritative listing of species.

[Lanier_Lurker]

11 is Pennsylvania Smartweed if I'm not mistaken.  If it is,  keep in mind that it is a poor (really, really poor) substitute for toilet tissue.

I think Bro. Noble has nailed #11.  I hunted around and found this image of Pennsylvania Smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)

http://www.delawarewildflowers.org/1536.html