#Foamflower

[forestfeeling]

Really lovely spring evening tonite

[junyphotos]

‘Spring Symphony’

Foamflower

Tiarella Cordifolia

March 22nd, 2024

[faguscarolinensis]

Tiarella cordifolia / Heart-Leaved Foamflower at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[pnwnativeplants]

i think Tiarella trifoliata but not actually sure

[besprent-garden]

[vandaliatraveler]

Update from the native wildflower beds: the creeping woodland phlox (Phlox stolonifera) is now in full, vigorous bloom. This graceful, shade-loving perennial has a mat-forming habit that makes it an ideal ground cover. The plant's hairy, red-tinged stems, which sport delicate, spoon-shaped leaves, spread freely and need an occasional manicure to keep them from taking over. Also in bloom are the heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) and eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), whose tall, elegant flowering stalks are producing masses of flowers (it must like the location). The wild geranium is also loaded up with flowers (photos to come).

[diyandcrafting]

Glitter Foam Sheet Crafts Idea

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Flower

beautiful words with "flower" to plant in your next poem/story

Blanketflower - gaillardia—i.e., any of a genus (Gaillardia) of American composite herbs with showy flower heads

Cuckooflower - a bitter cress (Cardamine pratensis) of Eurasia and North America; ragged robin (i.e., a perennial herb, Lychnis flos-cuculi, of the pink family cultivated for its pink flowers with narrow-lobed petals)

Dayflower - any of a genus (Commelina) of herbs of the spiderwort family having one petal smaller than the other two

Flowerage - a flowering process, state, or condition

Floweriness - of, relating to, or resembling flowers; marked by or given to rhetorical elegance

Foamflower - a spring-flowering herb (Tiarella cordifolia) of eastern North America that has white flowers with long stamens and no stem leaves; also called: false miterwort

Gillyflower - carnation (i.e., a plant of any of numerous often cultivated and usually double-flowered varieties or subspecies of an Old World pink, Dianthus caryophyllus, found in many color variations; also: a moderate red; archaic: the variable color of human flesh)

Globeflower - any of a genus (Trollius) of plants of the buttercup family usually with globose yellow or orange flowers

Nonflowering - producing no flowers; specifically: lacking a flowering stage in the life cycle

Pasqueflower - any of several anemones with palmately compound leaves and large usually white or purple early spring flowers

Passionflower - any of a genus (Passiflora) of chiefly tropical woody tendriled climbing vines or erect herbs with usually showy flowers and pulpy often edible berries

Satinflower - honesty; blue-eyed grass; common chickweed; flannelflower; a plant or flower of the genus Godetia

Strawflower - any of several plants having everlasting flowers

Twinflower - a prostrate subshrub (Linnaea borealis) of the honeysuckle family that is found in cool regions of the northern hemisphere and has fragrant usually pink flowers

Waxflower - a climbing plant (Stephanotis floribunda) of Madagascar often cultivated in the greenhouse for its fragrant white flowers; an epiphytic tree (Clusia insignis) of British Guiana; indian pipe; spotted wintergreen

If any of these words make their way into your next poem/story, please tag me, or leave a link in the replies. I would love to read them!

More: Word Lists

[rebeccathenaturalist]

An App Does Not a Master Naturalist Make

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/app-not-master-naturalist/ - I had written this as an op-ed and sent it to WaPo, but they had no interest, so you get to read it here instead!

I have mixed feelings about Michael Coren’s April 25 Washington Post article, “These 4 free apps can help you identify every flower, plant and tree around you.” His ebullience at exploring some of the diverse ecological community around him made me grin, because I know exactly what it feels like. There’s nothing like that sense of wonder and belonging when you go outside and are surrounded by neighbors of many species, instead of a monotonous wall of green, and that is a big part of what led me to become a Master Naturalist.

When I moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest in 2006, I felt lost because I didn’t recognize many of the animals or plants in my new home. So I set about systematically learning every species that crossed my path. Later, I began teaching community-level classes on nature identification to help other people learn skills and tools for exploring their local flora, fauna, and fungi.

Threeleaf foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata)

Let me be clear: I love apps. I use Merlin routinely to identify unknown bird songs, and iNaturalist is my absolute favorite ID app, period. But these tools are not 100% flawless.

For one thing, they’re only as good as the data you provide them. iNaturalist’s algorithms, for example, rely on a combination of photos (visual data), date and time (seasonal data), and GPS coordinates (location data) to make initial identification suggestions. These algorithms sift through the 135-million-plus observations uploaded to date, finding observations that have similar visual, seasonal, and location data to yours.

There have been many times over the years where iNaturalist isn’t so sure. Take this photo of a rather nondescript clump of grass. Without seed heads to provide extra clues, the algorithms offer an unrelated assortment of species, with only one grass. I’ve gotten that “We’re not confident enough to make a recommendation” message countless times over my years of using the app, often suggesting species that are clearly not what I’m looking at in real life.

Because iNaturalist usually offers up multiple options, you have to decide which one is the best fit. Sometimes it’s the first species listed, but sometimes it’s not. This becomes trickier if all the species that are suggested look alike. Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and eastern black walnut (Juglans nigra) all have pinnately compound, lanceolate leaves, and young plants of these three species can appear quite similar. If all you know how to do is point and click your phone’s camera, you aren’t going to be able to confidently choose which of the three plants is the right one.

Coren correctly points out that both iNaturalist and Pl@ntNet do offer more information on suggested species—if people are willing to take the time to look. Too many assume ID apps will give an easy, instant answer. In watching my students use the app in person almost everyone just picks the first species in the list. It’s not until I demonstrate how to access the additional content for each species offered that anyone thinks to question the algorithms’ suggestions.

While iNaturalist is one of the tools I incorporate into my classes, I emphasize that apps in general are not to be used alone, but in conjunction with field guides, websites, and other resources. Nature identification, even on a casual level, requires critical thinking and observation skills if you want to make sure you’re correct. Coren’s assertion that you only need a few apps demonstrates a misunderstanding of a skill that takes time and practice to develop properly—and accurately.

Speaking of oversimplification, apps are not a Master Naturalist in your pocket, and that statement —while meant as a compliment–does a disservice to the thousands of Master Naturalists across the country. While the training curricula vary from state to state, they are generally based in learning how organisms interact within habitats and ecosystems, often drawing on a synthesis of biology, geology, hydrology, climatology, and other natural sciences. A Master Naturalist could tell you not only what species you’re looking at, but how it fits into this ecosystem, how its adaptations are different from a related species in another ecoregion, and so forth.

Map showing Level III and IV ecoregions of Oregon, the basis of my training as an Oregon Master Naturalist.

In spite of my criticisms, I do think that Coren was absolutely onto something when he described the effects of using the apps. Seeing the landscape around you turn from a green background to a vibrant community of living beings makes going outside a more exciting, personal experience. I and my fellow nature nerds share an intense curiosity about the world around us. And that passion, more than any app or other tool, is fundamental to becoming a citizen naturalist, Master or otherwise.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[iceclaw9753-photos]

A foamflower, with spring in full force a lot of flowers are blooming in the forest.

[justzamb]

Finally here we are with Part 3 in my series of peaceful floral Veilguard companions! Hello there, my future husband Lucanis. Lilacs for Lucanis. Symbolizing renewal, mysticism, love, and death. Others in the series: Davrin, Emmrich Also while you're enjoying all the amazing Veilguard hype, please keep an eye on and show your support for the SAG-AFTRA strike to protect game actors from misuse of A.I. technology!

I need someone to know that I drew about 50,000 different plants for this because I couldn't make a decision on what would fit best. Plants included: white baneberry, foxglove, dahlia, english ivy, wheat, lavender, pomegranate blossom, white lilies, carnations, roses, goldenrod, crow poison, foamflower, and oranges. I read this poem and was like alright, we're going with lilacs. Also, not super happy with this one but the point of the series is to finish and post things - not necessarily to achieve perfection. I've been sitting on this for over three weeks and it was time to just release it into the wild. Either Taash or Neve are up next!

[neverfeltthewinterquitesodead]

tiarella cordifolia heartleaf foamflower albert fw vick jr, 1988, lady bird johnson wildflower center

[spiffyspidr]

I Am The Weeds In Your Garden

I am the weeds in your garden

I am the thorn trees in your lawn

I am the mulberry trees growing into your yard

Not your neatly mowed lawn of Kentucky bluegrass, nor your hostas or yellow flag iris with such beauty you regard

I am the yarrow and goldenrod

The American chestnut, sumac, and bloodroot

Not your lavender, dandelion, periwinkle, or olive

I am the weeds in your garden

I am not your prized roses

I am trillium and violets

I am red maple and sassafras and poplar

I am the weeds in you garden

I am not clover, or daffodils, or begonia

I am sorrel and raspberry and Canadian ginger

I am prairie smoke, columbine, strawberry, and spicebush

I am the weeds in your garden

I am foamflower, mayapple, phlox, trout lily, coneflower, and bellwort, and crabapple

Not hyacinth, or boxwood, or lilac

I am the weeds in your garden

I am the weeds you can't pull

I am pests you can't kill

I am all the trees you try to cut down

I will grow back stronger and faster and better

There's no keeping me out for long

You call me ugly and bitter

You think me an eyesore at glance

But sometimes the natural can contain more beauty than all of your ugly, invasive plants

[faguscarolinensis]

[brightsuzaku]

A Trip to the Botanical Gardens: Part 1

Last Thursday, April 13th, I went to the local Botanical Gardens to see some flowers and enjoy the weather!

The image above is of wild tulips near the entrance building. They're very colorful tulips! Yellow, and red, and all kinds of shapes... purple flowers that I cannot name...

Ahem, speaking of, I most certainly did not go there to get multiple pictures of purple flowers, which may or may not be violets.

I mean it! The flowers above are called "foamflowers", and they are clusters of tiny white flowers, so I guess they do look like foam.

...I lied, here's some purple flowers. In the image above, the flowers depicted are witchhazel.... Or, at least, that's what I though, but Wikipedia says otherwise!

Never mind that! Look at this beautiful pond! It's surrounded by trees, and there's a little wooden bridge in the distance! It's so bright and sunny, idyllic and pure.

There's more pictures to share, but I'll be doing multiple posts for these, since I took... a lot... of pictures.

Speaking of, the purple flowers in this picture look like more witchhazel, don't they..... No, these are #notwitchhazel.

Next post: PART 2 HERE

[wills-woodland-warriors]

FadingFlea’s kits

minus StumpPaw because I wasn’t sure what to put! Feel free to add/ask to change anything liber :) (@liberhoe @residents-of-the-darkforest-of-the-darkforest @ambitiousauthor )

AmaranthKit 

gender: Molly 

sexuality: lesbian 

Characteristics: has a collection of beetle exoskeletons, indifferent, quiet, very chill, witty

Favourite plant: yellow harlequin 

Adult name: AmaranthTuft 

RoseWoodKit

Gender: Molly

Sexuality: straight 

Characteristics: well-rounded, assured, hopeless romantic, forgetful, has a collection of pebbles, joyful, hesitant, troublesome 

Favourite plant: wood blewit mushrooms 

Adult name: RosewoodSpring

RaspberryKit

Gender: Tom 

Sexuality: ? 

Characteristics: runt, generous, delicate, working to improve his herb collecting, has moss in his fur, outspoken, 

Favourite plant: heartleaf foamflower 

Adult name: RaspberryThorn 

PoppyKit 

Gender: Molly 

Sexuality: demiromantic 

Characteristics: predictable, working to improve her climbing, best friend is CandyKit, adventurous, excitable 

Favourite plant: sunshine columbine

Adult name: PoppyPerch 

FishKit 

Gender: trans Tom 

Sexuality: gay 

Characteristics: quiet, sweet, munchkin singapura mix, chronic leg pain, dreamy, favourite colour is lime, loves water because it’s the one time his legs don’t hurt, excitable, cowardly, sympathetic 

Favourite plant: northern bedstraw

Adult name: FishDrop 

TawnyKit 

Gender: Molly 

Sexuality: ? 

Characteristics: standoffish, impatient, sarcastic, gentle, bossy, poor vision and no nightvision, envious, admirable, hates snow and water,  good at navigating 

Favourite plant: zinnia

Adult name: TawnyTrot

JellyKit 

Gender: Molly 

Sexuality: ?

Characteristics: thoughtful, wants to be a leader, munchkin mix, has dreams about Starclan, organized, big-thinking 

Favourite plant: deadnettles 

Adult name: JellyMoss 

PineNutKit 

Gender: Tom 

Sexuality: Pansexual 

Characteristics: proud, talkative, wants to be skilled in story telling, munchkin mix, honest, skeptical, extreme, addictive (feels the need to collect anything) 

Favourite plant: lambs cress 

Adult name: PineNutPounce